Metonymy
Metonymy (me-ton'-y-my) is a type of metaphor that substitutes a related attribute for what is meant. If someone asks how many plates there are going to be at dinner, they're asking about the number of guests. Plates are not parts of the guests, they're related to dinner guests. This is different from synecdoche, in which a part of a person or thing refers to the whole, or vice versa. In “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” “head” is a synecdoche for the whole person of the king while “crown” is a metonymy for the responsibilities of the monarchy.
Notes on Metonymy
Quotes including the Figure of Speech Metonymy
O, for a muse of fire
Read the QuoteO, for a muse of fire that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!Metaphor
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!Anapodoton
Can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
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Now is the winter of our discontent
Read the QuoteNowHyperbaton is the winter of our discontentMetaphor
Made glorious summerMetaphor by this son of York,Paronomasia
And all the clouds that louredMetaphor upon our houseMetonymy
In the deep bosom of the ocean MetaphorburiedHyperbaton & Ellipsis.
… continue reading this quote
Tush, tush, ’twill not appear
Read the QuoteHoratio
Tush, tush, ’twill not appear.Alliteration & Epizeuxis
Barnardo
Sit down awhile,
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,Synecdoche & Assonance
What we have two nights seen.Anastrophe
Before my God,
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Why, there’s no remedy
Read the QuoteIago
Why, there’s no remedy. ‘Tis the curse of service.
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to th’ first. Now, sir, be judge yourself
Whether I in any just term am affined
To love the Moor.
Roderigo
I would not follow him, then.
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This butcher’s cur is venomed-mouthed
Read the QuoteBuckingham
This butcher’s cur is venomed-mouthed, and I
Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar’s book
Outworths a noble’s blood.Metaphors
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself.
Norfolk
What,
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Say not “treasonous.”
Read the QuoteNorfolk
Say not “treasonous.”
Buckingham
To th’ King I’ll say ’t, and make my vouch as strong
As shore of rock.Hyperbaton & Simile
This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both—for he is equal rav’nous
As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
As able to perform ’t
O that this too too solid flesh would melt
Read the QuoteO, that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!Epizeuxis & Metaphor
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!Metonymy O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!Apostrophe & Epizeuxis
Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down
Read the QuoteTroy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
And the great Hector’s sword had lacked a masterMetonymy
But for these instances:
The specialty of rule hath been neglected,
And look how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
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Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me
Read the QuoteGhost
Adieu, adieu, adieu.Epizeuxis Remember me.
He exits.
Hamlet
O all you host of heaven! O Earth!Anapodotons & Apostrophes What else?
And shall I couple hell?Pysma O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
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All good people, You that thus far have come to pity me
Read the QuoteBuckingham
All good people,
You that thus far have come to pity me,
Hear what I say, and then go home and lose me.
Go with me like good angels to my end,
And as the long divorce of steel falls on me,
Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice
I have this day received a traitor’s judgment,
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