This one is an idiom.
from Time magazine -- August 22, 2011
page 25 -- from an article about financial trouble worldwide
"The dollar and the U.S. government debt, backed by America's well-functioning democracy and strong growth prospects, remained the largest, most liquid and (seemingly) safest investments on the planet. It was in this environment, in which all boats were rising, that the euro began to gain strength."
Metaphor:
from Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
"Words have always swilled around me like snow flakes, each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands." p. 1
Metaphors from Matched by Ally Condie
page 4, paragraph 2
As quickly as the air train moves, it still isn't fast enough. It hushes through the night, its sound a background for the low rain of our parents' voices, the lightning-quick beats of my heart.
Metaphors and Similes from Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes (740L):
Metaphor
pg. 40 "His mind was an aquarium, and his thoughts were darting around, this way and that, like little fish."
pg. 91 "Jasper's tail wagged in greeting. His eyes were large marbles of the deepest brown with wide black centers; his nose was speckled with pink."
p. 125 "Raindrops stuck to the screen [on a screen door] in places -- an unfinished needlepoint stitched in diamonds."
Similes
pg. 41 The girl's [hair] was long, pulled back into a ponytail that swung like a pendulum when she chased after the dog."
p. 54 This was from a writing assignment in Mitch's English class, written by a girl he likes.
Julie had written: " I have black hair. But it is not as dramatically black and shiny as Mitch Sinclair's hair, which looks like crows' wings sweeping across his forehead and over his ears." (Mitch had memorized this.)
p. 86 Describing Mitch's grandfather: "His skin was darkly tanned and was laced with so many wrinkles it looked as if a child had scribbled all over him with a pencil."
from Hush by Donna Jo Napoli:
"Windmills on the grassy hills spin like children cartwheeling." p. 30 Simon Pulse paperback
