Examples:
 | The rustler bragged he'd absconded with five hundred head of longhorns.
(Both "head" and "longhorns" are parts of cattle that
represent them as wholes.) |
| Listen, you've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels (This
sentence refers
to a vehicle in terms of some of its parts, "wheels".) |
| "He shall think differently," the musketeer threatened, "when he feels the
point of my steel." (A sword, the species, is represented by referring to
its genus, "steel"). |
| "All hands on deck." (Here, the laborers are referred to as
"hands".) |
| "Thank you Lord for our daily bread." (Bread as part of the meal.) |
Examples:
| The pen is mightier than the sword (The pen is an attribute of thoughts that are written with a pen; the sword is an attribute of |
military action);
| We await word from the crown. ("Crown" represents the king who will
actually make the decision.) |
| The White House (President) has issued a statement.... |
| or the press [reporters].... |
| or Buckingham Palace [the queen] |
The preceding examples are from a post on the AP listserv by Ken Cheney, Patty Adams, and others (Jan. 15, 2006). Cheney attributes his source as Silva Rhetoricae.
