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Understanding Mixed Metaphors

A mixed metaphor combines different images or ideas in a confusing or illogical way. Examples include phrases that merge unrelated concepts, such as comparing a fullback to both a bulldozer and an angel. The document provides various examples of mixed metaphors and suggests that they can be revised for clarity.

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Mujah Clarke
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178 views2 pages

Understanding Mixed Metaphors

A mixed metaphor combines different images or ideas in a confusing or illogical way. Examples include phrases that merge unrelated concepts, such as comparing a fullback to both a bulldozer and an angel. The document provides various examples of mixed metaphors and suggests that they can be revised for clarity.

Uploaded by

Mujah Clarke
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Mixed Metaphor Notes

Grades 11

What is a Mixed Metaphor?


A mixed or misused metaphor is a metaphor that combines different
images or ideas in a way that is foolish or illogical.
Example
At first, she was a weighted barge, then a sunflower tracking the light.
The metaphor starts out on water with a boat and ends up on land with
a flower, leaving the reader with a confused and scattered image. This
could be revised to unify the imagery and create an extended
metaphor:

Mixed Metaphors
Mixed metaphors are often the result of inappropriate merging of two
common metaphors.
Examples of misused or mixed metaphor includes:
• Milking the temporary workers for all they were worth, the manager
barked orders at them. (In this, the first image suggests cows and
the second image is associated with dogs).
• Unless we tighten our belts, we'll sink like a stone. (Unrelated
comparison of belts and stone).
• The fullback was a bulldozer, running up and down the field like an
angel. (Unrelated comparison of bulldozer and angel).
• We were swamped with a shocking barrage of work, and the extra
burden had a clear impact on our workflow. (Combining many
different images such as electrocution (shocking), a military attack
(barrage), weight (burden), water (flow) and so on.)
• The subject of global warming seems clouded in a sea of research.
(Here, there are the conflicting images of cloud and sea).
• The test is easy; it’s not rocket surgery. (Here, two clichés are mixed
viz. ‘rocket science’ and ‘brain surgery’).
• Barking out signals, the Los Angeles Spirit quarterback took the
ball and flew down the field. (“Barking” refers to dogs, but “flew”
suggests birds.)
• He clawed his way out of the traffic jam on Vine Street by slithering
around cars, buses, and trucks. (“Clawed” might suggest a bear,
but “slithering” refers to snakes.)
• Riverfest is the venerable elephant of river festivals, a decades-old,
ever present tortoise on the banks of the Ohio River. (“Elephant”
and “tortoise” are completely different animals.)

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