Sometimes, a figure of speech is used so often that it takes on its figurative meaning in a way that most listeners and readers recognize immediately. In these cases, the meaning of the phrase will be easily understood by readers who have heard the comparison before. Figures of speech that are widely recognized and understood in one part of a country might be unknown to people in another part, even if everyone in the country speaks the same language.
If you live in the United States, for example, and you’re carrying a backpack full of heavy books, you might complain, “This weighs a ton!” You don’t mean that your backpack literally weighs a ton (which is 2,000 pounds). You simply mean that the backpack is very heavy, and you're exaggerating its weight to emphasize your point.
"Weighs a ton" is a figure of speech. When you complain that your backpack weighs a ton, no one who grew up in the United States will think your backpack weighs 2000 pounds. That's because “weighs a ton” has been used so often in the U.S. that the phrase has taken on a different meaning--not "2000 pounds," just "really heavy."
Watch this video to learn more about figures of speech that rely on exaggeration to make a point.
Literally Figurative
Narrator:
“I told that joke to my brother and he died laughing!” If you said this to your friend, would they assume you had actually killed your brother by making him laugh himself to death? Probably not. Instead, your friend would understand that you’re using a figure of speech, which is a creative comparison or exaggeration that makes a description more interesting.
Speaking figuratively is colorful and entertaining, but it isn’t meant to be taken at face value. When you tell your friend, “he died laughing,” you’re trying to emphasize the event to make a better story. If you wanted to talk about what really happened without any figures of speech, you would speak literally. This would sound more like, “I told that joke to my brother and he thought it was really funny!”
A lot of people use the word literally for emphasis, as in “That joke was so funny, I literally died laughing.” This is confusing, though, because “literally” doesn’t mean “totally,” it means “actually.” For example, in the 3rd century BC, a Greek philosopher named Chrysippus literally died laughing after seeing a donkey drink wine and eat figs (I guess you had to be there). Here, dying of laughter isn’t an exaggeration or figure of speech, it’s a true description of what actually happened.
Question
Do literary authors use figures of speech that everyone will recognize?
