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Yeah, I got the metaphor
그래, 무슨 말인지(=그 은유를) 알았다
Trainwreck (2015 ; 나를 미치게 하는 여자)
No. I got the metaphor.
아니 무슨 말인지 알았다
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) - Drama
- That's a metaphor. - I got it, thanks.
그건 은유야 그게 무슨말인지 알았다 고마워
■ A list of metaphors
Metaphors about responsibility
I have to bear the responsibility for this.
The responsibility was weighing on my mind.
I don’t want to be a burden to you.
Metaphors that are idioms
Spill the beans.
Give someone a hand.
Metaphors about relationships
I was very attached to him.
She has split up with her boyfriend.
They greeted us warmly.
It was a very stormy relationship.
Metaphors about emotion
The news has hit him hard.
It had a huge impact on them.
He has a fiery temper.
The book was received warmly.
I felt a chill of fear.
She treated us with cool indifference.
The future looks very bright.
The news lifted her spirits.
There’s no point in having these dark thoughts.
They were eaten up withhatred.
Mistrust had poisoned their relationship.
Metaphors about thought and knowledge
A few doubts remained at the back of my mind.
The thought crossed her mind that he was lying.
I don’t want to put any ideas into your head.
I had already planted the ideain her mind.
It was a carefully constructed theory.
Let me know if you dig upanything about him.
I see what you mean.
They recognized the fact that they needed to improve.
We want to get a range of different views.
He kept us in the dark about his plans.
Metaphors about place and position
We are in a situation where there are no real winners.
They found themselves in a very difficult position.
I’ve been caught between a rock and a hard place.
This is a potential minefield for beginners.
You’ve lost me. What do you mean?
I really think you’re barking up the wrong tree.
I found out I’d been taken for a ride.
They met on a rainy day in January.
He lay awake all through the night.
This week’s gone so fast.
One day, in the distant future, I might go and live abroad.
The weeks crawled by until we could meet again.
She didn’t notice the time slipping by.
Metaphors about journeys and travelling
The baby arrived just after midnight.
They remembered the departed in their prayers.
His life took an unexpected direction.
What’s the best way of doing it?
I’ve tried being reasonable, and I don’t want to go down that road again.
I haven’t yet reached my goal.
I’d like to return to what David was saying earlier.
He always says things in a roundabout way.
The conversation drifted towards the subject of money.
This term, we will be exploring the psychology of sport.
It is an excellent guide to English vocabulary.
For more information, visit our website.
Metaphors about up and down
This is an area of high unemployment.
They had raised their prices to unreasonable levels.
The temperature had been falling steadily all day.
There was a collapse in the price of oil.
It is the true story of a millionaire’s meteoric risefrom poverty.
They were downtrodden and oppressed.
She had never wanted to climb the greasy pole of politics.
They look down on everyone who isn’t as rich as they are.
They regarded tradesmen as their inferiors.
I felt as high as a kite.
They seem very down about it all.
Extract from: Language Awareness: Metaphor by Dr Rosamund Moon.
16 Comments
saleah
January 24, 2012 at 4:53 am
what does”i’m drowning in school work mean”
Stan
January 24, 2012 at 10:10 am
saleah: It means there is so much homework, it’s like a sea which the student is struggling to stay afloat in, or get on top of.
There are related metaphors: I could say I’m “submerged in (or by) work”, or I might be “up to my eyes/ears/elbows/armpits in paperwork”.
Belinda
January 9, 2013 at 8:35 pm
It means there’s an overload of work which you can’t seem to get through *when your drowning you can’t seem to get through to the surface of the water*
Belinda
January 9, 2013 at 8:37 pm
This website is very helpful, thank you
Plastino
March 6, 2013 at 11:28 pm
What does “a bird iin hand is worth two in the bush ” mean?
Plastino
March 6, 2013 at 11:32 pm
What does “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” mean?
Macmillan Dictionary
March 7, 2013 at 8:14 am
For definitions, see these entries in Macmillan Dictionary:
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/bird#a-bird-in-the-hand-is-worth-two-in-the-bush
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/glass#people-who-live-in-glass-houses-shouldn-t-throw-stones
American Metaphors/Storytelling « bodytippingpoint
June 15, 2013 at 7:26 am
[…] http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/a-list-of-metaphors […]
Mbumba
March 11, 2014 at 8:33 am
What does spill the beans mean?
Macmillan Dictionary
March 11, 2014 at 9:26 am
For a definition, see this entry in Macmillan Dictionary: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/spill#spill-the-beans
Michael Rundell
March 11, 2014 at 9:38 am
And it’s worth adding that the dictionary’s search software is pretty powerful, so you don’t need know the *exact* wording of an idiom: just put a couple of words in the Search box and the software will take you to the right entry. A nice example is the phrase “close (or shut or lock…) the stable door after the horse has bolted”: the wording is variable, but if you put any two of “horse”, “stable” or “bolted” in the Search box (in any order), you’ll get there.
Ajay
April 12, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Extrordinary examples…Thank you
Gulnaz
January 5, 2017 at 5:30 am
Can phrases like
from the standpoint of learning, on the other hand, from the statistical viewpoint
be considered as metaphorical linkers?
Jessica Teo
February 21, 2017 at 11:30 am
Pls put meaning . Thks. Also extremely helpful and as others have said ….
Original
Carolyn Martinez
November 17, 2017 at 3:31 am
What does the moon turned over to face the day mean?
Macmillan Dictionary
November 17, 2017 at 9:43 am
That’s an interesting question, Carolyn. I found this sentence online among a set of examples of personification on a reading worksheet with no further explanation given; so I’m not sure if they made it up or got it from somewhere else. Clearly the moon is being personified here, but the image is not particularly clear to me. It suggests perhaps that the moon is in bed and is getting up or rising, but then it would logically be facing the night rather than the day. So I confess I’m puzzled. Suggestions welcome!
MY HOVERCRAFT IS FULL OF EELS
■ The day I got the metaphor
by SIMON HARRIS • APRIL 24, 2004
When I started on this project (as is usually the case when starting on any project) there was much to learn and many of the design decisions were unclear at best. Some seemed downright ludicrous.
Unfortunately for my team members, I’m not one to just start copying what everyone else has done - I need to understand why. After 6 weeks or so I started to feel that some of the stuff I was seeing was deliberate and some was just plain wrong. But that still didn’t explain to me why the deliberate stuff was the way it was.
This week James Ross returned to the project (YAY!) after being seconded by another team (BOO!) on the same floor. James is the technical architect for the project and therefore, IMHO, the one charged with having the overall “vision” for the design.
So, all week the focus of my constant ranting and questioning was turned fairly and squarely on him (poor bastard!). Still, no matter how many questions I asked or how much I ranted, every answer seemed only to address a single question which feelt uncomfortable to me - James is one of the best technical architects I’ve ever come across.
And then as we (James and I) walked out the office door on friday night still in the thick of an argy bargy, he made a seemingly off the cuff and devastatingly simple remark: “it’s an insurance application form. I’ve tried to get that across to everyone on this project so many times now” he exclaimed with a sense of exsasperation “except for you I guess?” Things immediately began to make sense! In one fell swoop, he had addressed almost all of all my issues.
XP has as one of its core practices The Metaphor. It had never been so clear to me how important the metaphor really is and the reason nothing seemed to gel was that I didn’t have it.
It’s been a while since I was on a project where I didn’t have the metaphor in my head. What also became blatently obvious was that when I have been the lead on a project, that’s pretty much where it’s stayed (in my head) and I haven’t communicated the metaphor effectively to every team member. It’s something I’ve usually written down as a series of “principles” that, whenever we have a design question, we can refer back to for guidance.
The metaphor is the highest level of abstraction in the application design fractal and therefore it’s paramount that every member of the team, either existing or new, fully understand what the metaphor is. Of course this is predicated on there actually being a metaphor in the first place! ;-)
Previously
The Irksome Power of Ignorance