# The mixed metaphor thread



## Olly Buckle (Mar 13, 2008)

A fun creative thread. 
  This is your window of opportunity , don’t let it fly out the door, your chance to create an original mixed metaphor,  the opportunity to change to the sort of horse that only fools and beggars would ride into mid stream.


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## seigfried007 (Mar 13, 2008)

Blood money is thicker than water on your hands.


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## seigfried007 (Mar 13, 2008)

Not just as sure if I've got what a "mixed metaphor" is just as yet...


Joe put the pedal to the metal and grabbed the bull by the horns.

or would "He stepped up to the plate and grabbed the pedal by the metal." work better?


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## Olly Buckle (Mar 15, 2008)

Metaphor is using something to represent something it doesn't mean literally.
For example "He is a lion in battle" or "he was in the heat of the battle". People don't turn into lions and the temperature does not rise in the center of the battle. "He was a lion in the heat of the battle" is mixing them in the simplest way, but I am sure you can do better than that.


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## buyjupiter03 (May 11, 2008)

I do this all the time! Sheesh, I think the best one I came up with lately was something like "It's no walk in the picnic." Mixed "life isn't a walk in the park" with "life's no picnic".


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## Luc (May 25, 2008)

Ok, I'm giving this a try:

Rather then roar like the fury of fire he decided to slither himself away into quiet submission when seeing those guns assembled into a line of fire in waiting.


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## Olly Buckle (Nov 19, 2012)

His argument was good, and he had put it in a nutshell, his opponent brought up his heavy guns, but this was just too tough a nut to crack and he was brought to his knees by it.


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## Glass Pencil (Dec 12, 2012)

He had to put the ice-queen on the back burner while he roasted in the soup of his own inequities.


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## the antithesis (Dec 12, 2012)

He's not the brightest tool in the shed.

You can't break an egg without making an omelet.


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## nath881 (Dec 12, 2012)

The inauguration of his death boiled in the heat of the demon's eyes that wielded the words that slew him.


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## Glass Pencil (Dec 12, 2012)

Don't let the door hit your horse you rode in on.


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## Cran (Mar 19, 2013)

Whether they are mixed metaphors or pulverised proverbs, they do let the cat out of the box.


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## Olly Buckle (Mar 19, 2013)

Blue sky thinking requires down to earth men.


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## Cran (Mar 19, 2013)

The pen is mightier than a pig's ear.


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## moderan (Mar 19, 2013)

An old dog can't change its spots.


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## Cran (Mar 20, 2013)

Loose lips upset the apple mac, but there was ice in his veins when his blood boiled.


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## Brock (Mar 20, 2013)

I have to find a way to pay Uncle Piper before April 15th.  He can't get blood out of my kitchen sink, which means he's going to take everything but the turnip.


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## Olly Buckle (Mar 20, 2013)

Brock said:


> I have to find a way to pay Uncle Piper before April 15th.  He can't get blood out of my kitchen sink, which means he's going to take everything but the turnip.


The man who pays the piper dances to a different tune.


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## moderan (Mar 20, 2013)

A grounder gathers no moss.


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## Cran (Mar 20, 2013)

A Rolling Stone shouldn't hurl in glass houses.


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## Olly Buckle (Mar 21, 2013)

Off topic:

Mixed metaphors are, of course, two or more metaphors, however I am put in mind of 'Mixed up metaphors'.

There was an African chief who was very admiring of the English Queen. So much so he had a replica of her throne built, complete with sconce stone. When it was not in use he had a pulley system so it could be pulled up into the roof of his hut, but of course the hut was not built to take that sort of weight. One day the ridge pole broke and the throne came down on him killing him outright. 'People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones'.

Hey. it's a Spoonerism as well!

An Eskimo got cold legs fishing, so he traded some furs for a paraffin heater and installed it in the bows of his kayak. All was well until he hit a large wave, the paraffin sloshed, there was a fire and he sank. 'You can not have your kayak and heat it'. 

My all time favourite is attributed to Dorothy Parker, a paraphrase, "You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think".


As you were, back to mixing metaphors.


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## IanMGSmith (Mar 21, 2013)

The pent up venom of his anger was about to explode with the aimless fury of a drunk's bladder after winning the lottery.


...hmm, mixed metaphors and analogy?


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## Lewdog (Mar 21, 2013)

This thread sure came in like a lion, but it has made like a tree and leaved.


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## Olly Buckle (Mar 23, 2013)

> with the aimless fury of a drunk's bladder after winning the lottery.


Yea I reckon that is an analogy, longer with explanatory elements.


> This thread sure came in like a lion, but it has made like a tree and leaved.


This is a pair of similes, metaphors say something is something, similes say say it is 'like' or 'as'. Not wildly important here, but it is good to know the difference.


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## Cran (Mar 23, 2013)

If you change ferries in mid-stream, don't forget to pay the horse.


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## Lewdog (Mar 23, 2013)

It's raining cats and the dog days of summer.


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