metonymy Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in `they counted heads')

L. metonymia, Gr. , indicating change + , for a name: cf. F. métonymie. See Name.

(Rhet.) A trope in which one word is put for another that suggests it; as, we say, a man keeps a good table instead of good provisions; we read Virgil, that is, his poems; a man has a warm heart, that is, warm affections.