1.What does 'He's wound up tighter than a drum' mean? It's a mixed metaphor/simile for tension, but it used to be quite popular. The coil springs which powered old fashioned toys were wound up with a key. We used to wind our

"He walked as fast as the undergrowth and snowdrifts would allow " What is the justification for the conditional in the second half of the sentence? Tough question. In some ways, it is not really a conditional, but an expression of

no female atheists Metaphoric balls. CJ

I don't doubt that you're correct. I just think that as metaphors go, this usage is manque'. Is it supposed to evoke the violence, the quickness, the sure thing, the ostentation, all of the above? (I'm too lazy to write out

Slang moves much faster than I do! There are probably more than a million people contributing to Urban Dictionary. Some contributions are accepted , some rejected . I suppose "slam-dunk" is itself a slang term, but the usage you propose

It's a baseball reference. It could be literal - hit a home run in the baseball game you are going to play in. It could be a metaphor - do very, very well in whatever it is you're doing.

The wine cup is the little silver well where truth, if truth there be , doth dwell . Get a man drunk if you want to know what he's really like. Shakespeare is picturing wine being served in a silver cup. well is metaphoric for anything deep

According to the answer from Vorpar, stress is more of a state of mind, while pressure is the external force. I guess "give ground to" is a war fighting metaphor. In the old fashioned wars, you fought over a piece of ground. "To

Sky is a big place - "flying solo" in such a big sky is difficult, don't feel ashamed to have failed.She's continuing his metaphor. One too many names - no, this sounds like he's added another name as author and she thinks

Sorry, Pernickety. I didn't tie that up very well! The metaphor obviously alludes to the artist's brush. I should think it would be used figuratively to favorably describe the work of other creators, such as God's work in laying out a