noun (n)

• language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense(noun.communication)

  Synonym:
  figure, figure of speech, image
  

  source: wordnet30
• The use of a word or expression in a different sense from that which properly belongs to it; the use of a word or expression as changed from the original signification to another, for the sake of giving life or emphasis to an idea; a figure of speech.(noun)

  source: webster1913