Popular oxymora

Hyperbole

" My sister uses so much makeup,...

" she broke a chisel trying to get it off last night! " Johnny, from Prescott Middle School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

" she bought out Mary Kay just to have enough makeup for one day! " Andrea, from somewhere in South Dakota

" Marilyn Manson freaked out when he saw her! " Nizam, from Bukit Panjang Gov't H. S., Singapore

" when she takes it off, my mom doesn't recognize her." Ashley, from Knoxville, Tennessee

" she has to use a sandblaster to get it off at night." Margaret

" that I haven't seen her real face for years..." Nivedita

" when she smiles her cheeks fall off." Ed

" she leaves a colour trail behind her when she walks! " Grant K.

" you can't tell where the face begins and ends! " Cara K.

" when she smiles, cracks the size of the Grand Canyon form in the surface." Ashley Brosseau

" by the time she gets it all on, it's time to take it off! " Josh W.

" she weighs 50 pounds more when she's done! " Alex

" at night she has to get the paint scraper to take it off." Beth Atkins

" when she takes it off she loses 30 pounds! " Benny H.

" she could pass as a clown at the circus." Adriene T.

" the artist formerly known as Prince gets ideas from her." Ashley Christine

" you could scrape off just the outer layer and put it on five other girls." Scott J.

" she looks like my

Zeugma

Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,

Dost sometimes counsel take - and sometimes tea.

Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (Pope was speaking of Queen Anne and Kensington Palace; it should be born in mind that in Pope's time, " tea" was pronounced " tay" and thus rhymed with " obey.")

He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

Syllepsis can be used with idiomatic phrases to achieve a similar result:

If we don't hang together, we shall hang separately. Benjamin Franklin

You held your breath and the door for me. Alanis Morissette, Head over Feet

I took her hand and then an aspirin in the morning,

I took her hand and took her home. Eve 6, " Girl Eyes"

" Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London." (from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde) Cecily is making a catty remark to Miss Fairfax, a Londoner, by using " common" in two senses, namely " numerous" and " vulgar".

" The Russian grandees came to Elizabeth's court dropping pearls and vermin." Macaulay tells us here in one short phrase a great deal about the Russian grandees.

" Are you getting fit or having one? " (from the television program M*A*S*H)

" You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit." (from the television program Star Trek: The Next Generation)