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

Tobias Smollett

Blushing like Aurora.

Dry as tinder.

False as the fowler’s artful snare.

Eye glistened like that of a rattlesnake.

Inconstant as waves.

Lank as a greyhound.

Nodded at each other like a congregation of Anabaptists.

Perverse as a hog.

As a vulture rapacious.

Shrivelling up his face, like an autumn leaf.

Skulk like the dishonor’d wretch, whose hireling steel, in secret lifted, reeks with human gore.

Snarl like Guthrie for the public weal.

Stared like the Gorgon’s head.

Still as the gentle calm, when the hush’d wave no longer foams before the rapid storm.

Stormed like a perfect hurricane.

Struts like a crow.

More sweet than the honey of the Hybla bees.

Unfeeling as rocks.

As winter’s frost unkind.

Vain as to count the April drops of rain.

One wit, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a zest and flavor to the dish; but more than one serves only to spoil the pottage.

Thy words, like genial showers to the parch’d earth, refresh my languid soul.