Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Sydney Munden

Barren as a Pope’s Bull.

Go to the bottom of things, like a custom house officer.

Cruel as the pinch of a painless dentist.

Curiosity is like a locksmith, who departs when the door is opened.

Dark as a dead man in the ground.

Dead as desire in the dead.

Dim as the dream of a dream that was dreamed.

Disturbing as an unopened telegram.

About as easy as to gather a bag of feathers thrown to the four winds.

Flat as an excuse.

Foolish, as to look for a rainbow in the night.

Frequent as telegraph poles on a railway journey.

Handsome as a hackman’s hat.

Harmless as reptiles kept in spirits.

Impatient as a hungry infant.

Intolerable as a fortunate fool.

Kind as consent.

Low as a baboon’s forehead.

Push on—like ambition.

Most questions are like a plank: have two sides.

Rushed like the hot blood in the veins of a fever-stricken child.

Shameless as a nude statue.

Silent, like a sundial in the shade.

Startles like a pistol shot at a wedding.

Stupid as hounds chasing an iron deer.

Thirsty as Tantalus.

Unelastic as a mathematical fact.

United, like a hook and eye.

Unseen as a disbanded rainbow.

Vehement as party spleen.

Volatile as a bell.