catachresis

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In this sense the proverb is current by a misuse, or a catachresis at least, of both the words, fortune and fools.

From Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit and Some Miscellaneous Pieces by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

This journal was, at the period in question, rather remarkable for the use of the figure called by the rhetoricians catachresis.

From Rejected Addresses by Smith, James

Tis true, no poet but may sometimes use a catachresis.

From An English Garner Critical Essays & Literary Fragments by Arber, Thomas Seccombe, Professor

‘Liquorish,’ by catachresis for lickerish = tempting to the appetite, causing one to lick one’s lips.

From Milton's Comus by Bell, William

As to “twinn'd stones”—may it not be a bold catachresis for muscles, cockles, and other empty shells with hinges, which are truly twinned?

From Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor