Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, Grenville Kleiser [learn to read books TXT] 📗

had lips like pinks

She walked like a galley-slave

She walks in beauty like the night

She was as brilliant, and as hard too, as electric light

She was silent, standing before him like a little statuesque figure

Shining like the dewy star of dawn

Shivering pine-trees, like phantoms

Showy as damask-rose and shy as musk

Shrill as the loon's call

Shrivel like paper thrust into a flame

Shy as the squirrel

Sights seen as a traveling swallow might see them on the wing

Silence deep as death

Silence now is brooding like a gentle spirit o'er the still and pulseless world

Silence that seemed heavy and dark; like a passing cloud

Sinks clamorous like mill-waters at wild play

Sits like the maniac on his fancied throne

Skies as clear as babies' eyes

Sleek and thick and yellow as gold

Slender and thin as a slender wire

Slowly as a tortoise

Slowly as the finger of a clock, her shadow came

Slowly moved off and disappeared like shapes breathed on a mirror and melting away

Slowly, unnoted, like the creeping rust that spreads insidious, had estrangement come

Small as a grain of mustard seed

Smooth as a pond

Smooth as the pillar flashing in the sun

Snug as a bug in a rug

Soaring as swift as smoke from a volcano springs

So elusive that the memory of it afterwards was wont to come and go like a flash of light

So my spirit beat itself like a caged bird against its prison bars in vain

Soft as a zephyr

Soft as sleep the snow fell

Soft as Spring

Soft as the down of the turtle dove

Soft as the landscape of a dream

Soft as the south-wind

Soft in their color as gray pearls

Soft vibrations of verbal melody, like the sound of a golden bell rung far down under the humming waters

Some gleams of feeling pure and warm as sunshine on a sky of storm

Some like veiled ghosts hurrying past as though driven to their land of shadows by shuddering fear

Some minds are like an open fire—how direct and instant our communication with them

Something divine seemed to cling around her like some subtle vapor

Something resistant and inert, like the obstinate rolling over of a heavy sleeper after he has been called to get up

Something sharp and brilliant, like the glitter of a sword or a forked flash of lightning

Sorrowful eyes like those of wearied kine spent from the plowing
                                                            [kine = cows]

Spread like wildfire

Squirrel-in-the-cage kind of movement

Stamping like a plowman to shuffle off the snow

Stared about like calves in a pen

Steadfast as the soul of truth

Steals lingering like a river smooth

Still as death

Stood like a wave-beaten rock

Straight as a ray of light

Straight as an arrow

Streamed like a meteor through the troubled air

Streamed o'er his memory like a forest flame

Streaming tears, like pearl drops from a flint

Striking with the force of an engine of destruction

Strong as a bison

Style comes, if at all, like the bloom upon fruit, or the glow of health upon the cheek

Subtle as jealousy

Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose, flushing his brow

Sudden sprays of rain, like volleys of sharp arrows, rattled gustily against the windows

Suddenly, like death, the truth flashed on them

Sunbeams flashing on the face of things like sudden smilings of divine delight

Sunday mornings which seem to put on, like a Sabbath garment, an atmosphere of divine quietude

Supple and sweet as a rose in bloom

Sway like blown moths against the rosewhite flame

Sweet as a summer night without a breath

Sweet as music she spoke

Sweet as the rain at noon

Sweet as the smile of a fairy

Swift as a swallow heading south

Swift as lightning

Swift as the panther in triumph

Swifter than the twinkling of an eye

T

Talking and thinking became to him like the open page of a monthly magazine

Tall lance-like reeds wave sadly o'er his head

That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along

The anemone that weeps at day-break, like a silly girl before her lover

The army blazed and glowed in the golden sunlight like a mosaic of a hundred thousand jewels

The army like a witch's caldron seethed

The beating of her heart was like a drum

The beauty of her quiet life was like a rose in blowing

The billows burst like cannon down the coast

The birds swam the flood of air like tiny ships

The boat cuts its swift way through little waves like molten gold and opal

The boom of the surf grew ever less sonorous, like the thunder of a retreating storm

The breast-plate of righteousness

The breathless hours like phantoms stole away

The breeze is as a pleasant tune

The calm white brow as calm as earliest morn

The camp fire reddens like angry skies

The chambers of the house were haunted by an incessant echoing, like some dripping cavern

The church swarmed like a hive

The city is all in a turmoil; it boils like a pot of lentils

The clouds that move like spirits o'er the welkin clear [welkin = sky]

The clustered apples burnt like flame

The colored bulbs swung noon-like from tree and shrub

The crimson close of day

The curl'd moon was like a little feather

The curling wreaths like turbans seem

The dark hours are swept away like crumbling ashes

The dark mass of her hair shook round her like a sea

The dawn is rising from the sea, like a white lady from her bed

The dawn had whitened in the mist like a dead face

The dawn with silver-sandaled feet crept like a frightened girl.

The day stunned me like light upon some wizard way

The day was sweeter than honey and the honey-comb

The day have trampled me like armed men

The dead past flew away over the fens like a flight of wild swans

The deep like one black maelstrom round her whirls

The deepening east like a scarlet poppy burnt

The desolate rocky hills rolled like a solid wave along the horizon

The dome of heaven is like one drop of dew

The dreams of poets come like music heard at evening from the depth of some enchanted forest

The eagerness faded from his eyes, leaving them cold as a winter sky after sunset

The earth was like a frying-pan, or some such hissing matter

The eternal sea, which like a childless mother, still must croon her ancient sorrows to the cold white moon

The evening sky was as green as jade

The excitement had spread through the whole house, like a piquant and agreeable odor

The excitement of the thought buoyed his high-strung temperament like a tonic

The feathery meadows like a lilac sea

The firm body like a slope of snow

The first whiff of reality dissipated them like smoke

The floor, newly waxed, gleamed in the candle-light like beaten moonbeams

The fragrant clouds of hair, they flowed round him like a snare

The gathering glory of life shone like the dawn

The gesture was all strength and will, like the stretching of a sea-bird's wings

The girl's voice rang like a bird-call through his rustling fancies

The glimmer of tall flowers standing like pensive moon-worshipers in an ecstasy of prayerless bloom

The guides sniffed, like chamois, the air
                               [chamois = extremely agile goat antelope]

The heavens are like a scroll unfurled

The hills across the valley were purple as thunder-clouds

The hoofs of the horses rang like the dumb cadence of an old saga

The hours crawled by like years

The hum of the camp sounds like the sea

The hurrying crowds of men gather like clouds

The ideas succeeded each other like a dynasty of kings

The impalpable presence of the new century rose like a vast empty house through which

no human feet had walked

The inexorable facts closed in on him like prison-warders hand-cuffing a convict

The lake glimmered as still as a mirror

The land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell

The land was like a dream

The level boughs, like bars of iron across the setting sun

The light of London flaring like a dreary dawn

The lights blazed up like day

The lilies were drooping, white, and wan, like the head and skin of a dying man

The mellowing hand of time

The melody rose tenderly and lingeringly like a haunting perfume of pressed flowers

The Milky Way lay like diamond-dust upon the robe of some great king

The monk's face whitened like sea-foam

The moon drowsed between the trees like a great yellow moth

The moon on the tower slept soft as snow

The moonbeams rest like a pale spotless shroud

The moonlight lay like snow

The moonlight, like a fairy mist, upon the mesa spreads

The mortal coldness of the soul, like death itself comes down

The mountain shadows mingling, lay like pools above the earth

The mountains loomed up dimly, like phantoms through the mist

The music almost died away, then it burst like a pent-up flood

The name that cuts into my soul like a knife

The nervous little train winding its way like a jointed reptile

The new ferns were spread upon the earth like some lacy coverlet

The night like a battle-broken host is driven before

The night yawned like a foul wind

The ocean swelled like an undulating mirror of the bowl of heaven

The old books look somewhat pathetically from the shelves, like aged dogs wondering why no one takes them for a walk

The old infamy will pop into daylight like a toad out of fissure in the rock

The penalty falls like a thunderbolt from heaven

The phrase was like a spear-thrust

The pine trees waved as waves a woman's hair

The place was like some enchanted town of palaces

The plains to northward change their color like the shimmering necks of doves

The poppy burned like a crimson ember

The prime of man has waxed like cedars

The public press would chatter and make odd ambiguous sounds like a shipload of monkeys in a storm

The purple heather rolls like dumb thunder

The rainbows flashed like fire

The river shouted as ever its cry of joy over the vitality of life, like a spirited boy before the face of inscrutable nature

The roofs with their gables like hoods

The roses lie upon the grass like little shreds of crimson silk

The satire of the word cut like a knife

The scullion with face shining like his pans

The sea reeled round like a wine-vat splashing

The sea-song of the trampling waves is as muffled bells

The sea spread out like a wrinkled marble floor

The sea, that gleamed still, like a myriad-petaled rose

The sea was as untroubled as the turquoise vault which it reflected

The setting of the sun is like a word of peace

The sharp hail rattles against the panes and melts on my cheeks like tears

The ships, like sheeted phantoms coming and going

The silence seemed to crush to earth like a great looking-glass and shiver into a million pieces

The silvery morning like a tranquil vision fills the world

The sky burned like a heated opal

The sky gleamed with the hardness and brilliancy of blue enamel

The sky was as a shield that caught the stain of blood and battle from the dying sun

The sky was clear and blue, and the air as soft as milk

The sky was like a peach

The sky where stars like lilies white and fair shine through the mists

The solid air around me there heaved like a roaring ocean

The solid mountains gleamed like the unsteady sea

The soul is like a well of water springing up into everlasting life

The sound is like a noon-day gale

The sound is like a silver-fountain that springeth in a golden basin

The sound of a thousand tears, like softly pattering wings

The sound of your running feet that like