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

R. D. Blackmore

Askew, like sheep through a hurdle.

Bent like an old bruised lantern.

Blue as the sky in spring.

Bright as an iceberg.

Brighter than the sun through wheat.

Burrow like a weasel.

Bursting like a bean-pod.

Calm as deep rivers.

Clogged like honey.

Crackling as artillery.

Dark as a wood.

Delicately, as fingers play sad music.

Flashing, like a newly-awakened flame.

Flashed like the spray of a fountain.

Flips away like whalebone from the finger.

Fluttering like a raven wounded.

Fresher than the day-star.

Frizzled like a lawyer’s wig.

Gentle as a turtle-dove.

Gently as a rabbit goes.

Gladdening to our eyes as the flowers in May.

Gleamed upon the water like a bride at her looking-glass.

Glistening, like a maid at her own ideas.

Glistened like dormer-windows piled with snow.

Gone as a shadow goes.

Happy as a May-pole.

Hazy, like an oil-lamp full of fungus.

Innocent as an infant.

Laughed like a bell.

Leaped in the air like a shot rabbit.

Lifting my heart to her, as the spring wind lifts the clouds.

Light as cobwebs.

Loud as a culverin.

Louder than harvest thunderstorm.

Motionless as a tombstone.

Murmured like a shell.

Quick, as a darted beam of light.

Quiver, like a weed in water.

Red as a plum.

Rising like springs ingathered.

Scared like a wild bird flies.

Sharp, like the crack of a pistol.

Shone like a cherry by candle-light.

Simple as the flowers in the field.

Simple as milking.

Soft voice as a laughing dream.

Soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers.

Sparkling like the dancing of new stars.

Spread like fingers.

Sprightly, as a hayfield.

Steep, like the ladder of a hay-mow.

Stern as block of bogwood oak.

Stick to it, like a clenched nail.

Still as a log.

Striped like a viper’s loins.

Stuck to me like cobbler’s wax.

Stuck like leeches.

Suddenly, like a thunder-bolt.

Sure as stars of hope.

Sure as sunrise.

Surely as fame belongs to earth.

Swift as the summer lightning.

Trembling, as sunshine comes through aspen-leaves.

Trembled like a folded sheep at the bleating of her lamb.

Tremble, like the trembling of an arch ere the key-stone is put in.

Trembling, like water after sunset.

Unuseful, as if void of mind.

Upright as a young apple tree.

Gruff voice, like the creaking of the gallows-chain.

Wagging, like a bed of clover-leaves in the morning.

Waiting, like a lamp-post.

Warm as a cricket.

Yellow as gamboge.

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