Re: backbone of the graveyard

"Nick" <psstcenter@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:SuaRe.342066$s54.5256@xxxxxxxxxxx

> I just came across this expression and don't know much about graves.
> Any ideas?

This exemplifies a Mixed Metaphor. Without context
we cannot know the essential details but:
1. Whether the single word graveyard is used
metaphorically or not, the word backbone must be
metaphorical because real graveyards are tracts of
land i.e. have no backbones.
2. In current speech and writing, graveyard occurs
more often as a metaphor (graveyard of hopes,
ambitions, etc.) than as a real denotation (of the
site where humans or their ashes are interred.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)


.