Simile
This is a comparison creating a vivid image due to the fact that the object with which we compare is well-known as an example of the quality in question. The characteristic itself may be named in the simile, e.g. when the conjunction "as" is used: (as) beautiful as a rose; stupid as an ass; stubborn as a mule; fresh as a rose; fat as a pig; white as snow; proud as a peacock; drunk as a lord. Such similes often turn into cliches. In some idiomatic similes the image is already impossible to distinguish: as dead as a doornail, as thick as thieves.
The characteristic on the basis of which the comparison is made, may only be implied, not named, as when the preposition "like" is used: to drink like a fish (= very much);
Oh, my love is like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June. (Burns);
Rise like lions after slumber, in unvanquishible number,
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
That in sleep had fallen on you.
We are many, they are few. (Shelly).
Similes may contain no special connector expressing comparison, as in: She climbed with the quickness of a cat; He reminded me of a hungry cat.
Comparative constructions are not regarded as simile if no image is created, viz., when the object with which something is compared, is not accepted as a generally known example of the quality: John skates as beautifully as Kate does; She is not so clever as her brother, John is very much like his brother.
Note that, unlike a simile, a metaphor contains a covert (not expressed openly) comparison, which is already included in the figurative meaning of a word: cf. a metaphor in What an ass he «/with the simile He is stupid as an ass. Metaphors are usually more expressive and more emotionally coloured than similes just because they do not express the comparison openly.
