Examples
There are many examples of dead metaphors in the English language. A brief list of examples is given below.
- flowerbed
- head teacher
- forerunner
- to run for office
- to lose face
- to lend a hand
- to broadcast
- pilot -- originally meant the rudder of a boat.
- flair -- originally meant a sweet smell.
- a computer mouse
- (tele)phone is ringing (original telephones had bells)
- fishing for compliments
- seeds of doubt
- catch her name
- world wide web
- tulip -- originally meant the eastern headdress, the turban.
- turn-on
- flared jeans
- he ploughed through the traffic lights
- foothills or the foot of a mountain
- brow of the hill
- branches of government
- windfall gain
- fly
- kidney beans
- "nightfall" - originally from the growing shade under an object which occurs when the object is dropped or falling
- The Body of an essay- originally connected to human anatomy
- infinitesimal calculus
Read more about this topic: Dead Metaphor
Famous quotes containing the word examples:
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)