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

George Bernard Shaw

Collapses like a pricked bladder.

Curled like the coat of a poodle.

Immediately, like a repeating clock of which the spring has been touched.

Nervous as a mouse.

Old as the shepherds.

Pitifully as a poor girl of the pavement will pretend to be a clergyman’s daughter.

Popular as a film drama.

Quails like a naughty child.

Shivering as if a bullet had struck him.

I sank under it like a baby fed on starch.

Solid as bricks.

Stimulating as ginger cordial.

Sweep it away like a leaf before a hurricane.

Tolerate as lions tolerate lice.

Unimaginative as a Chicago pig-sticking.

Universal as seasickness.

Useless as the canal constructor without water.

White as isinglass.

Whitens like steel in a furnace.