The phrase 'figurative expression' is correct and usable in written English.
You could use this phrase to refer to any type of language or imagery that is used to evoke a feeling or a certain image in the reader. For example, "The author's vivid figurative expressions brought the characters to life."
A figurative expression of hope and optimism that has literally come true – the team are now on a 12-game unbeaten run.
Sait Faik's subtle modification to Abasiyanik means someone whose aba is scorched, itself a figurative expression for "a person desperately in love".
The question of why figurative expression was used in Chavin art is one which we can consider more profitably after we understand how it was used.
Is this a new standard that The Times is establishing, that I can no longer take simple declarative statements in the newspaper as being statements of fact, but rather that everything that appears in the paper is to be regarded as a figurative expression?
The sky cannot burn; it is a figurative expression only.
This tool was introduced by Happé (1994) and it assesses the ability to understand a lie, a white lie, a figurative expression, irony, or persuasion.
The weakening to which popular figurative expressions are subject thus provides a motivation for changes.
However, this procedure can only apply to figurative expressions and so cannot help with the non-figurative chunks with which phraseology also abounds.
Packed with over 6,000 entries from the whole of the English-speaking world, including figurative expressions similes, sayings, and proverbs, it really is the bee's knees.
Figurative expressions, of course, lose their force as they become familiar and commonplace, and they may end by being no more than synonyms for the literal statement.
One exception, designed to put learners on the path to remembering, is to have them associate figurative expressions with mental images.
