dead metaphor

1. 1.

   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')

   Synonymsfrozen metaphor

   Broadermetaphor

Questions about dead metaphor

What does dead metaphor mean?

dead metaphor means "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')".

What is another word for dead metaphor?

Close synonyms include frozen metaphor. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dead metaphor a common word?