See Also: DEATH, LYING, POSTURE, SITTING STANDING

1. (I am) comatose like a mouse in the sun —Janet Flanner

   The simile was prompted by the writer’s being heavily medicated.

2. Fixed as the garden in a wallpaper mural —Anon
3. Frozen like dogs waiting at night for a bitch in heat —Bertold Brecht
4. Immobile as a heavily sprayed coiffure —Elyse Sommer
5. Immobile as despair —Yvor Winters
6. (Lay,) immobile, like something caught, an ungainly fish —Daphne Merkin
7. Immobilized like fishes caught in a net —Dominique Lapierre
8. Immovable, emotionless, a jade Buddha serenely contemplating some quintessential episode of a TV police show —T. Coraghessan Boyle
9. (The corpse still) lay like a smashed fly —G. K. Chesterton
10. Lay motionless, as if felled by an axe —Stefan Zweig
11. Lifeless as a string of dead fish —G. K. Chesterton
12. Motionless as a dog thrown into the street —Émile Zola
13. (Clouds … ) motionless as a ledge of rock —Willa Cather
14. Motionless as an idol and as grim —John Greenleaf Whittier
15. (Remained standing in the same place,) motionless as if he were a prisoner —Bertold Brecht
16. Motionless, in an agony of inertia, like a machine that is without power —D. H. Lawrence
17. Motionless, like a man in a nightmare —G. K. Chesterton
18. (This play has) no more action than a snake has hips —Anon
19. Remained rooted in place like an oak —Charles Johnson
20. Sat as still as a tree —Speer Morgan
21. Sat like a marble man —Margaret Millar
22. Sat … motionless as a drowsing man —Beryl Markham
23. Sat there like a potted plant —Delmore Schwartz
24. Sat through it all [revolution] like a slug —Rita Mae Brown
25. Sits impassive, like Rodin’s Penseur —Frank Swinnerton
26. (I’d rather) sit still, like the pilot light inside the gas —Saul Bellow
27. Standing … like a hydrant —Rosellen Brown
28. Standing there like a glee-club president in granite —Erich Maria Remarque
29. Standing motionless as if turned to stone —Ivan Turgenev
30. Standing stock still … like George Segal plaster figures —Paul Kuttner
31. Standing there rigid as the Venus de Milo —T. Coraghessan Boyle

    In Boyle’s story, The Descent of Man, the character voicing this simile speaks in dialect, using ‘de’ and ‘dere’ instead of ‘there’ and ‘the’ as used here.

32. Stand motionless as a pillar of the colonial portico of a mansion in a Kentucky prohibition town —O.Henry
33. Stand motionless … as though trying to make myself blend with the dark wood and become invisible —William Faulkner
34. Stand perfectly still, like a scarecrow —Walter De La Mare
35. Stand stone still —William Shakespeare

    The simile from The Life and Death of King John completes this statement: “I will not struggle; I will …”

36. Statue-like repose —James Aldrich

    The simile from a poem entitled A Death-Bed reads as follows in its full context: “Her suffering ended with the day; yet lived she at its close, and breathed the long, long night away in statue-like repose.”

37. Still as a child in its first loneliness —Theodore Roethke
38. Still as a cocoon on a branch —Marge Piercy
39. Still as a folded bat —Eudora Welty
40. (Became) still as a hare caught in the light of a torch —R. Wright Campbell
41. Still as a little hare in the hollow of a furrow —Colette
42. (Sitting as) still as a lizard on a stone —Mary Stewart
43. Still as a picture —John Greenleaf Whittier
44. Still as a pillar —Reynolds Price
45. Still as a post —Fannie Stearns Gifford

    Other similes to express the same idea are to “Sit still as a fence post” and “To stand like an iron post.”

46. Still as a snapshot —Anne Sexton
47. Still as a turtle on a log which is stuck in the mud near some willows —Elizabeth Spencer
48. Still as bushes —Helen Hudson
49. (The air was) still as death —MacDonald Harris
50. (The next morning was cold and clear and) still as held breath —John Yount
51. (Ray lay) still as ice —Wilbur Daniel Steele
52. Still as if a block of ice had formed around him —William Mcllvanney
53. Still as a mummy in a case —Henry James
54. Still as sleeping princesses —Joyce Cary
55. Still as the wind’s center —Theodore Roethke
56. Stood frozen like some sort of Mexican stone idol —Robert Silverberg
57. Stood still, petrified like the pillar of salt —Victor Hugo
58. Stood there rooted like a plant —Ellen Glasgow
59. They seemed [tired soldiers] as if they were of stone, without the strength to smile, or to swear —Boris Pasternak