The title of this post is an example of a simile, a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds, and which usually starts with as or like. Some examples of well know similes include, as slippery as an eel, as busy as a bee, as thick as two short planks, and as easy as falling off a log.
The word simile comes from the Latin simile (something similiar) from similis (like).
Here are a few less well know / freshly minted ones:
as reliable as a fox wearing a cravat
as dextrous as an octopus using seven pairs of scissors
as easy as herding cats
as spotty as a teenage leopard
as doomed to failure as a bouncy castle birthday party for hedgehogs
like a duck to custard
like lambs to the mint sauce
as big as a very big thing
as happy as a Frenchman who’s invented a pair of self-removing trousers (from Black Adder)
Have you spotted or coined any interesting or bizarre similes recently?
I don’t have similes that I know myself … but maybe you will find this page interesting!
http://www.daltai.com/grammar/similes/index.htm
Go raibh maith agat. Here’s one that’s similiar to the title of this post:
Chomh cantalach le mála easóg (As bad-tempered as a bag of weasels).
Other interesting similes on that site include:
Chomh meidhreach le dreoilín teaspaigh (As cheerful as a grasshopper)
Chomh ríméadach le cat a mbeadh póca air (As overjoyed/jubilant as a cat who had a pocket)
Fáilte romhat! 🙂
Two of my personal favorites:
Blinking like a toad in a hail storm.
Dumb as a box of rocks with the good ones taken out.
Quiet as a mouse pissing on cotton
You might check out Similepedia.com, a new wiki that collects and tags similes from prose, poetry, etc. There’s a complete list, for example, of similes from Cormac McCarthy’s chilling new book “The Road.” There’s a companion blog, http://www.similepedia.blogspot.com, that pulls similes from the popular press and other non-literary sources. (Interesting blurbs, for instance, on the Borat film, similewise, that is.
As bent as an arabs dagger
“happy as a tornado in a trailer park”- Mater, Cars
From “The Greatest Game Ever Played”
I slept like a baby (I woke up every two hours and cried).