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Definition of Mixed metaphor
1. Noun. A combination of two or more metaphors that together produce a ridiculous effect.
Definition of Mixed metaphor
1. Noun. (linguistics) An overreaching or contradictory combination of two distinct metaphors, similes or idioms. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Mixed Metaphor
Literary usage of Mixed metaphor
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Highland Bagpipe: Its History, Literature, and Music, with Some Account by Wiliam Laird Manson (1901)
"And make a viler noise than swine, In windy weather when they whine." —Hudibras.
Poking fun nt the pipes—English caricature—mixed metaphor— ..."
2. Metaphor and Simile in the Minor Elizabethan Drama by Frederic Ives Carpenter (1895)
"Catachresis and mixed metaphor we naturally expect to find largely exemplified
in a diction such as that of the Elizabethan dramatists, and far-fetched ..."
3. Language for Men of Affairs (1920)
"mixed metaphor The figurative language of talk is full of liveliness and graphic
quality, but is apt to be careless and incongruous. ..."
4. The Miller-Palmer High School English by William Dana Miller, Margaret Wilhelmine Oberempt Palmer (1918)
"Here is another well-known example of mixed metaphor: I bridle in my ... In this
mixed metaphor the muse is first likened to a horse and then to a ship. ..."
5. Wit and Humor of the American Pulpit: A Collection from Various Sources by Henry Frederic] [Redall (1904)
"Sometimes the mixed metaphor arises from a deficient education. Thus, that good
man, the late Father Taylor, of Boston, had little knowledge of grammar. ..."
6. The King's English by Henry Watson Fowler, Francis George Fowler (1906)
"Every one is on his guard when his metaphor is intentional ; the nonsense that
is talked about mixed metaphor, and the celebrity of one or two genuine ..."
7. Constructive Rhetoric by Edward Everett Hale (1896)
"But this is not a mixed metaphor: it is a rapid succession of very incongruous
... A really mixed metaphor seems to be the following from something of ..."
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