English Question

[rmontez]

Hi! I'm new here, but I have a quick question.

I have been trying to learn how to use words figuratively. My professor gave us a list of words and we had to define them literally, figuratively and contextually. I have the literal and contextual down pat, but when it comes to figuratively, I am at a lost. When I asked the teacher for help, all she could tell me was to use a point of reference and/or connect it to youself. I told her I didn't get that, but she repeated if five or six time so I gave up. Can some one help me?

The words in question:

effrontery, contrivance, serendipitous, ignominy, effeminate, inquietude, and mettle

[Scylax]

Figurative words (or phrases) are used when you
don't mean them to be taken literally; they are used as 'figures of speech'.

'The sick man found his death to be serendipitous'

'The pale sun, effeminate through the wispy cloud,
beckoned waterily'

The queen majestically stepped into the waiting
Rolls Royce, and was driven away in this contrivance'

The second of these examples is known as
'personification' as it endows the sun with human
properties ~ the sun cannot really beckon. It is
merely a figure of speech.