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

Thomas Hardy

Rose automatically as the sap in the twigs.

Bristling … like some mad Earth-god’s spiny hair.

Clear as the pure River of Life shown to the Evangelist.

Clinging … like pigeons on a roof-slope.

Clogged like a dripping pan.

Deep as annihilation.

Dignified as the Chapels-of-Ease.

Disappeared like a shape in a vision

Dividing like a splitting stick.

Dwindling away like echoes down a valley of rocks.

Rock firm as facts.

Flinch … like a plant in too burning a sun.

Ghastly as a laugh in hell.

Glistening … like the track of moonlight on the sea.

Glorified … like the angel St. John saw in the sun.

Hung heavy as an opiate.

Hesitating like a bather about to make his plunge.

Lurks like a mole underneath the visible surface of manners.

Pain … like the bitterness of dissolution.

Rapid as the shadow of a cloud.

Remaining, like marten-holes in a sand-cliff.

Soundless as a tomb.

Speeding … like an arrow.

Stirred … as the dive of a kingfisher stirs a quiet pool.

Swayed like a river weed.

Ticking like the love-making of a grasshopper.

Tossed … like a cork on the waves.

Transient as lightning.

Warm as a sunned cat.

Weak as a bled calf.

Wearily,
Like those whom living tires.