Strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as `blatant' to mean `flagrant') or deliberately (as in a mixed metaphor: `blind mouths').

Roget 521: figure of speech; facon de parler [Fr.], way of speaking, colloquialism.    phrase etc. 566; figure, trope, metaphor, enallage^†, catachresis^†; metonymy [Gramm.], synecdoche [Sem.]; autonomasia^†, irony, figurativeness etc. adj.; image, imagery; metalepsis^†, type, anagoge^†, simile, personification, prosopopoeia^†, allegory, apologue^†, parable, fable; allusion, adumbration; application.    exaggeration, hyperbole etc. 549.    association, association of ideas (analogy) 514.1 ... show more

Roget 523: misinterpretation, misapprehension, misunderstanding, misacceptation^†, misconstruction, misapplication; catachresis^†; eisegesis^†; cross-reading, cross-purposes; mistake etc. 495.    misrepresentation, perversion, exaggeration etc. 549; false coloring, false construction; abuse of terms; parody, travesty; falsification etc. (lying) 544.    ... show more