Ha! Love it 
Next up: “Like two peas in a pod”.
Does this mean that we are confined together in a small space with no means of escape?
What part of “like” is difficult for you? That’s pretty clearly labeled as a metaphor, and as such it requires interpretation.
My issue with “partner in crime” is mostly its vapidity. It doesn’t say anything. Most of the people accusing me of “overthinking” seem to agree that a literal crime isn’t being referenced, so my question is what’s the difference between saying you’re seeking a partner in crime and you’re seeking a partner? Cutesiness? OK, I’ll buy that–I’m not interested in you because you’re way too cutesy for me. Thanks.
But what’s the sense in saying that you’re looking for a partner? Everyone placing a personal ad is looking for a partner–that’s the whole idea. So to take this in a whole different direction, and perhaps get my point across more clearly, can you come up with a personal ad that says nothing about you or what you’re looking for ? To do so, I would include “partner in crime” for sure, but also the aforementioned
and also “I want someone who’s fun to be with” and “understanding of my needs”–maybe “someone who likes the same things I like” (without further specification). Perhaps a few absurdly general truisms such as “You have to have cherries to bake a cherry pie–agreed?” Or “I’d like someone I feel I can trust.” As opposed to what? Someone you’re sure will betray your deepest secrets just for laughs? I wonder what the longest ad would be that I could write that wouldn’t contain a single useful or meaningful phrase. I could probably get over 50 words without repeating myself, I think, or indulging in dadaist gibberish.
Yes it does, as has been laboriously explained to you. It means that they like to go out and do fun types of activities as opposed to sitting at home and gaming or watching tv or gardening (or they could like both).
So it couldn’t possibly include “I want someone who’ll sit at home with me on the computer 24/7 trolling websites with ridiculous garbage that annoys people while eating Cheetos”? That couldn’t possibly qualify as a partner in crime? I think it could.
Good for you…but unless you can find someone else that agrees with your somewhat unusual interpretation of the phrase you will never find that partner.
“Like two peas in a pod” is a simile, not a metaphor.
Correct again. That’s precisely my point. The person trying to narrow the field down in any sort of useful way does not accomplish that goal by specifying a partner in crime, which could include anything depending on the person’s own peculiar definition of the term. Hence it could mean anything and everything,
Pretty much sums up the thread for me…
I haven’t read beyond this post, but, yeah, that’s it. It’s about the same as someone saying they’re “fluent in sarcasm”.
Using the term correctly usually ends in favorable results.
Using the term incorrectly, as you insist on doing, will just confuse people.
I do say so. A simile is a type of metaphor that uses “like” or “as.”
You should at least click on my links. While they emphasize the difference between the two, one explicitly says “a simile is actually a subcategory of metaphor, which means all similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes.”
It ain’t me who’s using it incorrectly. I don’t use it. I don’t even approve of it. It’s all the people, some of them in this thread, who are defining it willy-nilly and expecting others to understand their clear meaning, which is what I’m trying to point out. Everyone understands what it means? Yeah, sure, if it means nothing.
Only to you. The rest of us seem to understand the phrase.
Then that joke isn’t for you. Move on.