mixed metaphors
Clashing verbal images
Mixed metaphors combine two or more incompatible figurative expressions, creating an image that clashes or contradicts itself.
The result is often unintentionally comic: We'll burn that bridge when we come to it, This is a minefield that could blow up in our faces.
Politicians and sports commentators are notorious offenders.
Sometimes mixed metaphors are deployed deliberately for humor.
- literary deviceStorytelling method or structure
- malapropismSound-alike word confusion
- juxtaposePlace together for contrast
- oxymoronSelf-contradicting phrase device
- incongruityLack of harmony
clash · crossing wires · confusions · cliché · beating a dead horse · wordplay · paradox · puns · tropes · contradiction · apples and oranges · idioms · mixture · miscommunication · simile · vagueness · analogy · proverb
- idioms errorsmalapropisms
- writing flawstypos, spelling errors, plot hole, plot holes, cliche
- gibberishgibberish, nonsense, babble, babbling, drivel
mixed, metaphor, mixes, mixing, mixer, mixers, unmixed, metaphors, metaphoric