Figurative Language

Question

Is the saying - if looks could kill a hyberbole because it is an exaggeration? I believe it is an idiom, but also a hyberbole.

For idioms, are they sometimes only idioms and not always something else, like a metaphor or simile? For example, no flies fly into a closed math doesn't seem to be anything but an idiom.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Firstly, the entire phrase is: If looks could kill, her look would have led to the death of the person she was looking at." We use "if looks could kill" only, to express the entirety of this phrase. It is an idiom. Some idioms are hyperboles too (e.g. raining cats and dogs).

I understand why you would want to identify this phrase as a hyperbole, but I would say it is not. The phrase is not "looks kill" meaning that glaring at someone could kill them. THAT would be a hyperbole. But the phrase is "IF looks could kill" making it a conditional statement. That conditional statement is not met in reality.