Almost Metaphors

Certain writers say that something is "almost like" something when it is actually as described.

Examples:

''They're staring up the block, where a van is parked. I happen to stop, and look up just as one of the new neighbors happened to come out, to get something from the van. It was the strangest creature I had ever seen, almost like someone had stuck two halves of different creatures together. ''

-The 'Taur Next Door by J.L. Atwood (www.furry.org.au/chakat/TND-index.html)

Actually, that's exactly what is being described in the story. Someone (scientists) stuck two halves of different creatures together, to make a Chakat. That makes this "simile" an incredibly weak one.

"Shi looked as if someone had cut the head off a large cat- about the size of a full grown lion- and spliced in the torso of a humanoid female. (Which was not so far from the truth; hir species had been created by blending Terran and feline genetic material.)" -Source: The Witch Of November

''The lab looked like an autopsy and a cat-scan room mixed together. There was a body-sized table in the middle of the room, and a large cat-scan-like machine in the back.'' -From: The Chronicles of Sherwood By Adam Harris (www.furry.org.au/chakat/Stories/Sherwood-01.htm)