‘I am feeling blue’ is a sentence you might hear from a person who is feeling sad. Similarly, ‘He is the black sheep of the family’ describes a person who is different from others. These expressions have one thing in common: a situation is equated to a real thing, although it is not actually that thing. Such expressions are known as metaphors.
A metaphor is one among the many figures of speech used in English. A figure of speech can be a phrase, a word, a repetition of words, a special arrangement of words or even a phrase. Whatever form it takes it may not mean exactly what the words mean.
A metaphor is one kind of figure of speech where a phrase or a word is used on an action or object - not literally but in a manner to signify similarity or resemblance. A metaphor is a powerful tool that writers or speakers employ to drive home their message in a much more resourceful and memorable way.