1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles” or "all the world's a stage” ( shakespeare).
2. one thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: "hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven” ( neal Gabler).

1. the use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it isn’t, invoking a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described, but in the case of english without the words like or as, which would imply a simile.
2. the word or phrase used in this way. an implied comparison.

1. the transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea.

1. A figure of speech by which, from some supposed resemblance or analogy, a name, an attribute, or an action belonging to or characteristic of one object is assigned to another to which it is not literally applicable; the figurative transfer of a descriptive or affirmative word or phrase from one thing to another; implied comparison by transference of terms: as, the ship spread its wings to the breeze; “judah is a lion's whelp,” gen. xlix. 9.
2.

1. 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