50 examples of hyperbole › What is it, Characteristics, Poetry and Narrative


50 examples of hyperbole

Hyperbole is a rhetorical or literary figure that consists of exaggerating an element of reality to give the message greater expressive force.

Exaggeration can consist of magnifying or diminishing a characteristic or quality attributed to a thing, person or situation. In addition to emphasizing its meaning, hyperbole helps create effects such as humor and irony.

Hyperboles in everyday speech

Everyday language is a source of abundant examples of hyperbole, that is, of exaggerations that emphasize the meaning of a phrase. We present here some frequent examples, and we highlight in bold the words in which the hyperbole or exaggeration resides.

  1. I've told you  a million  times. (It means that the calls for attention have been too many).
  2. I'm dying  of love for you (Who suffers a lot for the love he feels towards the person in question)
  3. With that big nose, he can  put out anyone's eye . (That that nose is very big)
  4. I am so hungry I would eat  a cow . (That he is very hungry)
  5. I'm going to grow roots  from so much waiting. (That has been waiting for a long time)
  6. First dead  before eating chicken liver. (Who resists eating chicken liver because of the displeasure it causes)
  7. I've called you a  thousand  times. (Who has called you many times)
  8. There is no day  when I should not repeat the same thing to you. (That he is tired of repeating the same instruction)
  9. Everyone  is watching what I do. (That he feels observed by people who know him)
  10. I have  a million  things to do today. (Who is burdened with occupations)
  11. I   have waited five hundred years for an answer to my request. (That has a long time waiting for an answer)
  12. The car was so hot  you could fry an egg on the hood . (That the heat inside the vehicle is too much)
  13. I am so thirsty that I would have  a barrel of water . (Who is very thirsty)
  14. There were  ten thousand  people before me in line at the bank. (That there were many people in the bank)
  15. I melt  with heat. (That feels very hot)
  16. At this rate, it will take  forever  to finish the job. (That they are taking longer than necessary in fulfilling their work obligations)
  17. He is  petrified  with fear. (That fear has incapacitated him to react)
  18. If that athlete keeps running like this, at any moment he will  start flying . (That the athlete is surprisingly fast)
  19. Watching the news makes  me sick . (That the news upsets him)
  20. There is nothing  that escapes you. (That is usually attentive to important things or details)
  21. I am so tired it hurts to  the soul . (That fatigue causes you a lot of pain)
  22. That happens to him for doing  twenty  things at once. (Who suffers the consequences of doing too many things at once)
  23. I am  frozen . (That feels very cold)
  24. You are the most beautiful woman in the  world . (What do you think the woman in question is beautiful)
  25. This market bag weighs  a ton . (That the bag is very heavy)
  26. The night became  eternal . (That he felt the night passed slowly)
  27. There is no one  who does not know his name. (That many people know the subject in question)
  28. I'm dying  of laughter. (That an issue makes you laugh a lot)
  29.  I dedicate every minute of the day to thinking about you. (Who frequently thinks of the person in question)
  30. I would not marry you  or have you be the last man on Earth . (Who does not want to commit to that person)

It may interest you:  What is hyperbole?

Hyperboles in poetry

In literature we can find numerous examples of poems with hyperbole that make use of this literary figure.

one

With my crying the stones soften
its natural hardness and break it ...
Garcilaso de la Vega, from  Égloga  I

2

The day you love me will have more light than June
(...) and there will be more roses together
than in the entire month of May.
Amaro Nervo, from the poem  The  day you love me

3

Your eyes have
love, I don't know what,
they shoot me, they steal
me they hurt me, they kill
me, they kill me, they kill me by faith.
From an anonymous 17th century Spanish poem

4

Once upon a man with a glued nose, once
upon a superlative nose, once
upon a short nose and write.
Francisco de Quevedo, from the sonnet To a man with a big nose

5

Nothing more swaying than your hip,
rebellious against the pressure of the attire ...
Carlos Pezoa Véliz, from the poem A una morena

6

When you see yourself smiling at the window
, the believer falls on his knees ...
Carlos Pezoa Véliz, from the poem To a blonde

7

My thirst, my endless craving, my indecisive path!
Dark channels where eternal thirst continues,
and fatigue continues, and infinite pain.
Pablo Neruda, from the book Twenty love poems and a desperate song.

8

Everything was fire at that time.
The beach burned around you.
Rafael Alberti ,  from the poem Returns of love as it was

9

I think heaven falls to the ground,
and would do wrong, sir (if it could be
that the ground would come)
that the ground is no longer to live on.
Lope de Vega, from the play Amar, Serve and Wait.

10

He has converted the flow of his tears
into the water of the rivers that cross the two Castiles,
capable of causing flooding ...
Francisco de Quevedo

Hyperboles in the narrative

In novels and stories we can also find frequent use of literary hyperbole. We point out here some examples of important Spanish-American authors.

one

Resolutely, he became so absorbed in his reading that he spent his nights reading from clear to clear, and the days from cloudy to cloudy; And thus, from little sleep and from much reading, his brain dried up so that he lost his mind.
From Miguel de Cervantes, from the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha.

2

... retained its enormous strength, which allowed it to knock down a horse by grabbing it by the ears.
Gabriel García Márquez, from the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.

3

But deep down he could not conceive that the boy the gypsies took away was the same bird who ate half a suckling pig for lunch and whose breezes withered the flowers.
Gabriel García Márquez, from the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.

4

But the tribe of Melquiades, according to the globetrotters, had been wiped off the face of the earth for having exceeded the limits of human knowledge.
Gabriel García Márquez, from the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.

5

It was difficult to admit that that irreparable old man was the only balance of a man whose power had been so great that he ever asked what hours it is and he had been answered the ones ordered by my general.
Gabriel García Márquez, novel The Autumn of the Patriarch.

6

The man was tall and so skinny that he always seemed in profile.
Mario Vargas Llosa, from the novel The War at the End of the World.

7

One could stay a lifetime listening to the nocturne, and the scherzo was touched as by fairy hands. Beba liked Strauss better because he was strong, truly a German Don Juan, with those horns and trombones that gave him goose bumps - which was surprisingly literal to me.
Julio Cortázar, from the story Las ménades .

8

It was never sunset, the vibration of the sun on the track and the bodies dilated the vertigo to nausea.
Julio Cortázar, from the story The South Highway

9

She knew, because she had felt it firsthand, how powerful the fire of a glance can be. It is capable of lighting the same sun.
Laura Esquivel, from the novel Como agua para chocolate.

10

After that scrutinizing look that penetrated clothing, nothing would be the same again.
Laura Esquivel, from the novel Como agua para chocolate.

Update date: 09 February 2021.