Hyperbole

The magnifying of things beyond their natural limits is called hyperbole . Language that signifies, literally, more than the exact truth, more than is really intended to be represented, by which a thing is represented greater or le , better or worse than it really is, is said to be hyperbolical . Hyperbole is exaggeration. "Our common forms of compliment are almost all of them extravagant hyperboles ."—Blair. Some examples are the following: "Rivers of blood and hills of slain." "They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions." "The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread, And trembling Tiber div'd beneath his bed." "So frowned the mighty combatants, that hell Grew darker at their frown." "I saw their chief tall as a rock of ice; his spear the blasted fir; his shield the rising moon; he sat on the shore like a cloud of mist on a hill."