mixed metaphor

mixed metaphor (plural mixed metaphors)

1. (linguistics) An overreaching, contradictory or incongruous combination of two distinct metaphors, similes or idioms.
   • 2025 December 3, Sam Kriss, “Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?”, in The New York Times Magazine‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 December 2025:

     This is just what the world sounds like now. This is how everything has chosen to speak. Mixed metaphors and empty sincerity.

• malaphor

• Metaphor § Subtypes on Wikipedia.Wikipedia