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

Charles Reade

Bright as an opening rose fresh with dew.

Choleric as fire.

Clumsy as a vine-press.

Cold as the world’s heart.

Common as dirt.

Constant as the sun.

Crack and bounce like parched peas.

Dead as mutton.

Easy as shelling peas.

Eyes glittering like basilisks.

Her eye worked like an ice gimlet in her daughter’s face.

Fled, as fogs disperse before the god of day.

Frank as the day.

Embraced her tenderly but furtively like a feather curling round a lovely head, caressing yet scarce touching.

Eyes furtively, like a guilty person.

Gleeful as the Evil One a-counting of his imps.

Eye glittered like rattlesnake’s.

Genius glittered like the gloriola of a saint.

Gloomy and dogged like a dangerous maniac in his cell.

Her white forehead glowed like a rose.

Hearty … like a trombone thoroughly impregnated with cheerful views of life.

Hoarse as a raven.

Hollow as a drum.

Howling like savage creatures grazed by death.

Indifferent as the moon.

Joyfully as the shepherd bears a strayed lamb to the fold.

Laughter like a chime of bells.

Gave her a look like red lightning.

Motionless, like a bereaved creature.

Mouthed, like a chawbacon.

Nodded her head like a mandarin.

As noisy as a hen with one chicken.

Nonsense—like swimming on a carpet.

Pale like those to whom dead Lazarus burst the tomb.

Parted like a stone from a sling.

Rare as a play that does not yawn you, or a woman that does not deceive you.

She was like a fading plant revived by showers of rain.

Safe as in bed.

Shook … like cold jelly.

Sick at heart as the mouse, that the cat lets go a little way, and then darts and replaces.

Slow as lawyers mount to heaven.

Smooth as velvet.

Sound as iron.

Spasms are like waves, they cannot go down the very moment the wind of trouble is lulled.

Stiff like a soldier on parade.

Teeth like ivory mixed with pearl.

Fibres tense like a greyhound’s sinews after a race.

Tottered away like a corpse set moving.

Twirling like a top.

Unpitied as fossils in a rock.

Upright as a tower.

White as the living cheek opposed.

Writhed like a worm on a hook.

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