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

James Fenimore Cooper

The old man proceeded alone into the waste, like a bold vessel leaving its haven to enter on the trackless field of the ocean.

Ancient as the spot on which the bricks of Babylon are found.

Busy as a cow’s tail in fly time.

Darted away like a bird that has been fluttering around its nest before it takes a distant flight.

Flocking into the country like pigeons in the Spring.

Thrown aside and forgotten as are the hoofs and horns of a buffalo.

Gaping like an indolent lion.

Generous as a lord.

Glided … like naked demons flitting among the clouds.

Glistened like a plate of beaten silver.

You dosed me with a drug that hangs about my tongue like a pound-weight on a humming-bird’s wing.

Joyous as the song of the wren.

Light as the sea-fowl rocking in the storm.

Listened … like a stag whose mysterious faculties had detected the footsteps of the distant hounds in the gale.

Listened like one in whom a train of novel ideas had been excited by the reasoning of the other.

Mute, like one who pondered on strange and unaccountable events.

The people I love most are scattered as the sands of the dry river beds fly before the fall hurricane.

Sprang forward like a courser for the goal.

Yielded like melted snow.