dead metaphor

Other forms: dead metaphors

Definitions of dead metaphor

1. noun

   a metaphor that has occurred so often that it has become a new meaning of the expression (e.g., `he is a snake' may once have been a metaphor but after years of use it has died and become a new sense of the word `snake')
   synonyms: frozen metaphor

   type of:

   metaphor

   a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity