understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. (A form of metonymy.) Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6 I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" The U.S. won three gold medals. (Instead of, The members of the U.S. boxing team won three gold medals.)