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

Richard Harris Barham

His head was as bald as the palm of your hand.

Blaze like a couple of lamps on a yellow post-chaise.

Drank like a Merman.

Flew like a cloth-yard shaft from a bended yew.

Grey as a badger.

Like Mahomet’s coffin, the shocking word hung half-way ’twixt the root and the tip of the tongue.

Off like a shot.

As picturesque,
As the figures we see in an arabesque.

Right as a trivet.

Smoked like a chimney.

White as soap.