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

John Ruskin

Advancing like the shadow of death.

Barren as death.

Beautiful as a piece of chalk cliff.

Beautiful as pine bridges over Alpine streams.

Blended, like the sea’s phosphor lustre.

Blushes bright pass o’er her cheek,
But pure and pale as is the glow of sunset on a mountain peak,
Robed in eternal snow.

Calm as … a deeply sheltered mountain lake.

Colorless as lead.

Chasms as deep and as drear as the tomb.

Headlong driven like clouds before the blast of heaven.

Ephemeral, like Michael Angelo’s snow statue.

Her dazzling eye;
As liquid in its brilliancy as the deep blue of midnight ocean,
When underneath, with trembling motion,
The phosphor light floats by.

Fierce … as whetted scythe.

Graceful as a bow just bent.

Lay, like a smile upon the lips of sleep.

Light as the tinkling leaves, that wander wide
When Vallombrosa mourns her pride.

Murmurs … like a bell that calls to prayer.

As pure as a mountain spring.

Rage, like demons in their Stygian cage.

Red, like a ruby.

Roaring like thunder borne upon the breeze.

Sharp as javelins.

Shook … like shingle at the ocean’s mercy.

Silent and slight as the fall of a half-checked tear on a maiden cheek.

Solid as a haystack.

Solid, like a cactus stem.

Stainless as the air of Heaven.

Stiff as a stone.

Support themselves as swarming bees do, hang on by each other.

Terrible as the sea.

Transient as the dew.

Twisted … like old olive branches.

Uncomfortable as the Lilliputians made Gulliver with their arrows.

Whiter than sawn ivory.

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