a type of metaphor; borrowed metaphor
Meanings
1 sense · 5 examplesnoun
a type of metaphor where the vehicle directly replaces the tenor
formalA rhetorical device in Chinese. The tenor (被比喻的事物) and words like "像" or "是" are omitted, leaving only the vehicle (比喻的事物) to represent the idea directly.
Ancient texts often use borrowed metaphor to make the language more subtle and powerful.
Analyzing the rhetoric of this line of poetry, you'll find that "snow" in "the roaring waves beat the banks, rolling up a thousand piles of snow" is a borrowed metaphor.
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Borrowed metaphor, along with simile and metaphor, is one of the three basic forms of figurative language.
He used "walls of bronze and iron" as a borrowed metaphor for the army's solid defense.
In the sentence "He is the pen holder of our unit," "pen holder" is a borrowed metaphor, referring to someone skilled in writing.