But since I lack that technology, I pose the following for the grammar Nazis who might still haunt this board:

When Selena Gomez sings: "You're metaphorical gin & juice", the word metaphorical in the lyric seems to ruin the 'pureness' of the metaphor, but she doesn't use the words 'like' or 'as' to do so.

So if she sang "You're gin & juice" then clearly we would say the lyric is a metaphor. If she sang "You're like gin & juice" we would say the lyric is a simile.

Is the lyric, as sung, yet a third category of figure of speech that I don't know? (or, rather, a different subcategory of metaphor that is not a simile) Or is a metaphor where the speaker removes the literalness of the comparison in any way (using 'like', 'as', or even 'metaphorical' always referred to as a simile?

-aero

/Grammar Hitler's Clone 2016