: Is there such a thing as a "reverse analogy"? Some analogies tend to be very common, becoming almost idiomatic. For example: He entered the doctor's office at 4:59 PM on a Friday. The

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Generally, both analogies and similes are symmetrical:

If A is like B, then B is like A (similes).
If the relation between A and B is like relation between C and D then relation between C and D is like relation between A and B. (analogies)

It would be hard to think up the exotic examples when that might not be true. So, technically, a reverse analogy is just an analogy, and a reverse simile is still a simile.

Now, if you create a simile of something relatively simple (cold air) to something overly long and descriptive (a doctor's secretary sending you a glare at 4:59PM on friday) this is called Epic simile or Homeric simile after these being common in the Illiad and the Odyssey.

In modern prose and poetry they are rarely welcome, because it usually results in purple prose, with parodistic tones at best, plain pathetic at worst, and you need absolute mastery to use them in a way that won't make the reader wince. (Your air-secretary simile certainly qualifies as wince-inducing.)

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Are we simply suggesting that any secretary will be irritated by late comers? If you are simply using the secretary as an analogy I am not sure it makes a lot of sense unless the secretary is relevant to the story...and "Like a secretary at closing time on Friday" is not really idiomatic...people can figure out the reference sure but not the same as icy stare.

I would avoid the analogy if it inst story relevant, but if it is I would probably go with adding something to ensure the specific person that is known to be frosty is the subject at hand. If you make it known that the secretary is frosty first then the second example can work well enough...and I like that it describes the environment utilizing a reference to a character's personality...that's interesting:

Snow was still falling when she got out. The icy cold air welcomed her, the way a certain secretary welcomes you on a Friday at 4:59PM.

That said it does not carry the same idiomatic value as in the first example. In the second description it is an adjective describing the weather, in the first the secretary. The "icy cold" idiom is only an idiom if you aren't talking about actual icy cold.

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