See Also: DESTRUCTION

1. (Shirley’s childless marriage had) become unstuck like a piece of old and grubby sticking plaster —Gillian Tindall
2. Blown aside like thistledown —John Fowles

   Fowles used this simile once to describe the eventual collapse of a political party and another time to describe a mood. Some similes obviously transfer to different points of reference more easily than others.

3. Broke like a sea-bubble on the sand —James Montgomery
4. (Perhaps the hope will die stillborn,) broken up like wreckage by the tides of events —Lawrence Durrell
5. Come apart like wet kleenex —Anon
6. (When I hit him he) comes apart like a perfect puzzle or an old flower —Philip Levine
7. Comes apart like meat being carved —G. K. Chesterton
8. (He started) coming apart like seedpod —Sharon Sheehe Stark
9. Cracking and fading like an old photograph —George Garrett
10. Crumbled like crackers into alphabet soup —Dave Anderson, New York Times/Sports of the Times, November 24, 1986

    The comparison referred to disintegration of a once great heavyweight champion division.

11. Crumble like old cheese —Anon
12. Crumble like soda crackers —Dashiell Hammett
13. (Their argument) crumbles like dry rice paper —Nicholas Proffitt
14. (The old voice) crumpled … like a fragile leaf —Lawrence Durrell
15. Crumple … like a leaf in the fire —James Joyce
16. Crumple up like wet and falling roses —D. H. Lawrence
17. (The house was) old and decayed like the pitted trunk of a persimmon —Yasunari Kawabata
18. Disintegrate like a bubble at a touch —Anon
19. Disintegrate like a crumbling monument —Anon
20. (Words came to my lips and) dissipated like the wisps of children’s breaths in the cold air outside —Kent Nelson
21. Dissolved and grew flimsy like the world after champagne —Graham Swift
22. [A committee] dissolved like a summer cloud —Edith Wharton
23. Dissolved like spit in the wind —Wallace Stevens
24. Dissolve like vague promises —Elyse Sommer
25. (Floats on water) dissolving like a paper plate —Margaret Atwood
26. (The white sky) empties of its promise, like a cup —Sylvia Plath
27. (The shadows under the trees and bushes) evaporated like puddles after a shower —Stephen King
28. Evaporated like a drop of dew —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
29. Evaporate … like hoar frost before the morning sun —W. Somerset Maugham

    Maugham’s simile from The Summing Up refers to the way changing tastes affect perceptions of an art work’s beauty.

30. Fall apart and scatter like a smashed string of beads —Yaakov Churgin
31. Falling into decay like a layer of mulch —Jean Thompson
32. (Furniture) falling to pieces like dry fruitcake —William H. Gass
33. Fizzles out like a wet firecracker —John Wainwright
34. Goes up in smoke like so much tissue paper —Elizabeth Spencer
35. Go sour [as a project] like milk abandoned in the far corner of the refrigerator —Marian Sturm
36. Melt away like salt in water —Sholom Aleichem
37. Melt away like Turkish delights —Frank O’Hara
38. Melted away like a snail —Elizabeth Spencer
39. [Members of a social set] melted away, like snow drops over a bonfire —Ayn Rand
40. Melted [in response to compliments] like butter on the Sahara —Tony Ardizzone
41. Melted like wax —The Holy Bible
42. (The day is) melting away like snow —Plautus

    This has been used in poetry and daily language since 200 B.C., and is still going strong.

43. Melts away like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day —Percy Bysshe Shelley
44. (Your mind now) moldering like a wedding-cake —Adrienne Rich
45. Rot and shred and peel away like old wallpaper —George Garrett
46. [Resolutions] thinned away like smoke, into nothingness —Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), The Gioconda Smile, Harper and Brothers: New York, 1921
47. Rotted through like old shoe leather —Marge Piercy
48. Rotting like autumn leaves —Marguerite Yourcenar
49. Shredded away like leaf tobacco —Saul Bellow
50. (The snake slides again and again until all passed is left behind to) shrivel like a ghost without substance —Daniela Gioseffi
51. (The remembrance had been brought to mind so often that it was) tarnished and dull, like a trinket not worth looking at —Beryl Markham
52. (Her muscles came) undone like ribbons —Sharon Sheehe Stark
53. Wear out like a worn battery —Anon

    This makes a good update for “Wears out like a run-down gramophone record.”

54. Went to pieces like a cheap umbrella in a gale —Anon

    This is updated from the original “Like a fifty cent umbrella,” something today only obtainable at a rummage sale.

55. Will dissolve faster than an Alka-Seltzer under a waterfall —Barry Farber, WNYC radio, commenting on the endurance of communism.
56. Wither like the flower of the field —Miguel de Cervante
57. Withered like grass —The Holy Bible/Psalms
58. Wither like a blighted tree —Barbara Howes
59. Withers like the face of an aged woman —Beryl Markham