Examples
- "The Troubles" as a name for decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
- "The Pond" for the Atlantic Ocean ("across the pond"). Similarly, "The Ditch" for the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand.
- "The Recent Unpleasantness," used in the southern United States as an idiom to refer to the American Civil War and its aftermath.
- "Intolerable meiosis!" comments a character in William Golding's Fire Down Below as their ship encounters an iceberg after another character comments, "We are privileged. How many people have seen anything like this?".
- The Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("It's just a flesh wound!")
Read more about this topic: Meiosis (figure Of Speech)
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)
“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)
“No rules exist, and examples are simply life-savers answering the appeals of rules making vain attempts to exist.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)