See Also: PERSISTENCE; PEOPLE, INTERACTION; RELATIONSHIPS

1. Adhere like lint —Anon
2. Adhere like ticks to a sheep’s back —Maurice Hewlett
3. Adhering … like shipwrecked mariners on a rock —J. M. Barrie
4. Clinging … like lichen to a rock —Ross Macdonald
5. Clinging like a limpet in the heaviest sea —William H. Hallhan
6. Clinging … like a monkey-on-a-stick —Julia O’Faolain
7. Clinging … stupidly, like a mule —Joseph Conrad
8. Clinging to her like chewing gum to a boot sole —Julian Gloag
9. Cling..like a wart —Tony Ardizzone

   The simile, as used in The Heart of the Order, describes the way a cowboy clings to the back of a bull.

10. Cling like chewing gum to a shoe sole —Anon
11. Cling like ivy —Robert Burton
12. Clings fiercely to all his titles, like an old soldier to his medals —Robert Traver
13. Clings to as a baby clings to its pacifier —Anon
14. Clings to me like a bed-bug —Maxim Gorky
15. Cling to (as to another person) as an exhausted man does to a rock —Brooks Bakeland
16. Cling to … like a drowning person to a piece of timber —Isak Dinesen
17. Cling to like a leech —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
18. Cling to like a vine —American colloquialism, attributed to New England

    A variation is to “Cling like ivy.”

19. Cling to … like tenacious barnacles upon rocks —Mary Ellen Chase
20. Clung like a basket enfolding a tithe offering —Arthur A. Cohen
21. Clung [to an idea] like a shipwrecked sailor hanging on to the only solid part of his sinking universe —Marguerite Yourcenar
22. (The baby) clung like a sloth —Louise Erdrich
23. Clung … like a tarantula —Terry Southern
24. (Rancour) clung like curses on them —Percy Bysshe Shelley
25. Clung … like magnet to steel —T. Buchanan Read
26. Clung the way a tree animal clings to a branch —Rachel Ingalls
27. Clung to each other like double sweet peas —A Broken-Hearted Gardner, anonymous 19th century verse
28. Clung together hand in hand like men overboard —George Garrett
29. Clung to her like a man on a swaying subway car whose grip on the overhead rail keeps him from tumbling to the floor —Paul Reidinger
30. Clung to his consciousness like a membrane —John Updike
31. Clutched [at her blanket] as a faller clutches at the turf on the edge of a cliff —Virginia Woolf
32. Clutching hold of … with the grasp of a drowning man —Charles Dickens
33. Clutching is the surest way to murder love, as if it were a kitten, not to be squeezed so hard, or a flower to fade in a tight hand —May Sarton
34. (There she sat,) glued to the tube like a postage stamp —A. Alvarez
35. Gummed together like wet leaves —Lawrence Durrell
36. [A term to describe a problem] had stuck with him like day-old oatmeal —T. Glen Coughlin
37. Hang on like a summer cold —Anon
38. Hang on … like a tick —Rita Mae Brown
39. Hang on to … [some small, unimportant point] … like a dog to a bone —Barbara Greene, on her cousin Graham Greene

    Some people like to get more specific; for example, “Hang on to … like a terrier” found in Iris Murdoch’s novel, The Good Apprentice.

40. Hang over like a heavy curtain —Anon
41. Hang over like a layer of smog —Anon
42. Hang over like crepe —Anon
43. Hang over like murder on a guilty soul —Sciller
44. Hang together like burrs —John Ray’s Proverbs
45. Hung like bees on mountain-flowers —Percy Bysshe Shelley
46. (The thought … ) hung like incense around Francis —Dorothy Canfield Fisher
47. It [something that had been said] stuck up in the girl’s consciousness like a fallen meteor —John Cheever
48. (A scar of horror, if not of guilt,) lay consciously on his breast, like the scarlet letter —George Santayana
49. Clinging … like starving children to a teat —Margaret Millar
50. Like swarming bees they clung —Lord Byron
51. Remained like a black cloud —Frank Swinnerton
52. She clings to me like a fly to honey —Anton Chekhov
53. She clung to him like a shadow —Margaret Mitchell
54. She’s coiled around her family and her house like a python —Jane Bowles
55. She was like a sea-anemone —had only to be touched to adhere to what touched her —John Fowles
56. Sticking to [another person’s side] like a melting snowbank —Marge Piercy
57. Stick like a wet leaf —Anton Chekhov
58. Sticks like a burr to a cow’s tail —Edward Noyes Westcott
59. Sticks like crazy glue —Anon
60. (My touch) sticks like mud —Marge Piercy
61. Stick together like overcooked pasta —Elyse Sommer
62. Stick together like peanut butter and jelly —Ed McBain
63. Sticky as fire —Terry Bisson
64. Sticky as rubber cement —Anon
65. Stuck … like a barnacle to a ship’s keel, or a snail to a door, or a little bunch of toadstools to the stem of a tree —Charles Dickens
66. Stuck to [him or her] like shit to a blanket —American colloquialism
67. Stuck to my side like a lung infected with pleurisy —Patrick White
68. Stuck with … like gas on water —Will Weaver
69. Tenacious as a Boston bull —Anon
70. They [people who cling to outmoded political concepts] are like degenerates who are color blind, except that they see something which is NOT there, instead of failing to see something which is —Janet Flanner
71. They [narrator’s daughters] cling together like Hansel and Gretel —Ogden Nash
72. Tied to each other back to back [long-married people] … like dogs unable to disengage after coupling —Lawrence Durrell