Entrances
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en·trance 1
(ĕn′trəns)n.
1. The act or an instance of entering.
2. A means or point by which to enter.
3. Permission or power to enter; admission: gained entrance to medical school.
4. The point, as in a musical score, at which a performer begins.
5. The first entry of an actor into a scene.
6. Nautical The immersed part of a ship's hull forward of the middle body.
[Middle English entraunce, right to enter, from Old French, from entrer, to enter; see enter.]
en·trance 2
(ĕn-trăns′)tr.v. en·tranced, en·tranc·ing, en·tranc·es
1. To put into a trance.
2. To fill with delight, wonder, or enchantment: a child who was entranced by a fairy tale. See Synonyms at charm.
en·trance′ment n.
en·tranc′ing·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Entrances/Exits
See Also: BEGINNINGS/ENDINGS, DEATH, EXITS
- (A large man in white) appeared like a cuckoo out of a clock —Madison Smartt Bell
- (Children don’t) appear and disappear like toadstools in a lawn —Miles Gibson
- Barged in … like a Rugby forward —Frank Swinnerton
- Blew in like a boisterous breeze —Cole Porter, from “You’ve Got That Thing,” one of the lyrics for the 1929 musical Fifty Million Frenchmen
- Came and went, like bees after honey —Wright Morris
- Came as silent as the dew comes —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Came in like a swan swimming its way —Virginia Woolf
- Came like swallows and like swallows went —W. B. Yeats
- Came like water —Edward Fitzgerald
- Comes and goes, like hearts —Elizabeth Bishop
- Coming in like a kite on a string —Clive Cussler
In his novel, Cyclops, Cussler used the simile to describe the entrance of a vessel.
- Entered like a wind —Ruth Suckow
For added emphasis there’s “Come in like a high wind” as used by Aharon Megged in his novel, Living on the Dead.
- Enter … tiptoeing like somebody trying to sneak in late to a funeral —George Garrett
- Flitted in and out of the house like birds —Anne Tyler
- Hopped in, light as a bird —Harvey Swados
- Light upon the scene like a new-made butterfly —George Garrett
- Like hoodlums come … with neither permits nor requests —Carl Sandburg
- Like Santa Claus he came and went mysteriously —Frank O’Connor
- Materialize … like a policeman presiding over an accident —Wilfrid Sheed
- Plunged into it like a rabbit into its hole —Ben Ames Williams
- Popped up here and there like bubbles in a copperful of washing —Frank Swinnerton
- Rolling through the front door like a drunken bear —James Crumley
- Rushed into the room like a cannon-ball —Romain Gary
- Rush in like a gust of wind —Anon
- Slinking in like a little ailing cat —Jean Stafford
- Slipped in like a cat or the wind —John J. Clayton
- Strode in like a conquering prince returning to his lands —Alice Walker
- Sweep in here like Zeus from Olympus, with his attendant nymphs and swains —Brian Clark
- Swept vivaciously in … like a champion ice-skater —Frank Swinnerton
- Was into the living-room … and out again with such speed that she might have been one of the mechanical weather-people in a child’s snow-globe or a figure on a medieval clock, who zooms across a lower balcony as the face shows the hands on the hour —Rachel Ingalls
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.