0 an expression that uses words to mean something different from their ordinary meaning: --
I hope that it was a figure of speech.
I am using a figure of speech to demonstrate the seriousness of the issue.
I do not use it as a figure of speech.
I am an orator, and you are not, and there is a well-known figure of speech called hyperbole.
That is not a mere figure of speech: their health has been ruined.
It is of no use talking and imagining that it is only a figure of speech.
I hope he will accept that that was a figure of speech.
It is no mere figure of speech to say that.