They are cyphers living under the _shadow_ of a great man.

He stood, his feet _glued_ to the spot, his eyes _riveted_ on the
heavens.

The Geddes report is to be _emasculated_ a little in the Cabinet, and
then _thrown_ at the heads of the Electorate.

Viscount Grey's suggestion may, in spite of everything, prove the
_nucleus_ of _solution_.

The superior stamina of the Oxonian told in no _half-hearted measure_.
[Even careful writers are sometimes unaware of the comical effect of
some chance juxtaposition of words and ideas, whereby a dormant
metaphor is set on its legs. Thus Leslie Stephen in his life of Swift
wrote: _Sir William Temple, though he seems to have been vigorous and
in spite of gout a brisk walker, was approaching his grave_. And again
when he was triumphantly recording the progress of agnosticism he has:
_Even the high-churchmen have thrown the Flood overboard_. [ED.]]



E. Mixed Metaphors

For the examples given in D, tasteless word-selection is a fitter
description than mixed metaphor, since each of the words that conflict
with others is not intended, as a metaphor at all. 'Mixed metaphor' is
more appropriate when one or both of the terms can only be consciously
metaphorical. Little warning is needed against it; it is so