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

François Rabelais

Awkward … like jackanapes swallowing of pills.

Blew as if he had been to puff up a pig’s bladder.

Bright as the sun.

As much care as pilots of ships avoid the rocks of the sea.

Clatter like armor.

Confident as of your own fingers.

Drink like a templar knight.

With as much ease as the sun outshines and dims the stars with his meridian rays.

Easily removable as a pair of spectacles from the nose.

Entangled … like a mouse catched in a trap.

Faces did glister like the key-hole of a powdering-tub.

Fair, like goddesses.

Fast as a dog can trot.

Flaming like a carbuncle.

Flaming, like the jaws of hell.

Foolish as to have confidence to promise himself three years.

Gallantly, like an old fencer.

Impossible as to cut fire into steaks, or draw water with a fish-net.

Laugh like a swarm of flies.

Multiply in seed like Abraham.

Multiplied like grasshoppers upon the face of the land.

Plain as a nose in a man’s face.

Red as a mazer from an alder-tree.

Rich as Job.

Right as my leg.

Round as a dish.

Round as a hoop.

Scampering as if the Devil drove them.

Scrambling like a cat up a wall.

Small as minced meat.

Solemn as a monkey after committing a mischief.

Squat as a flounder.

Squat into the ground like moles.

Eyes staring like a dead pig’s.

Stretching out his hand like the wings of a bird.

Strong as the devil himself.

Strong as Sampson.

Tears as big as ostrich’s eggs.

Turned me about as did Lot’s wife.

Whipped like green rye.

White as swans.