zeug·ma / ˈzoōgmə/ • n. a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts). Compare with syllepsis.DERIVATIVES: zeug·mat·ic / zoōgˈmatik/ adj.

ZEUGMA.
1. Also syllepsis. In RHETORIC, a phrase in which a word, usually a verb, is followed by two or more other words that commonly collocate with it, but not together: ‘The morning brought misty sunshine and the nurse’ ( Mary Stewart, Wildfire at Midnight, 1956). A figurative use usually precedes a literal use; in Pope's Rape of the Lock (1714), the heroine might ‘stain her Honour, or her new Brocade’ and ‘lose her Heart, or Neck-lace, at a Ball’.

2. A form of ellipsis regarded as poor style: X is as big if not bigger than Y, from which the *X is as big than Y can be extracted. The balanced form is X is as big as, if not bigger than, Y.

zeugma (rhet.) figure by which a single word or phrase is made improperly to apply to two or more words or phrases XIX (earlier in wider use XVI.) — L. — Gr. zeûgma yoking, f. zeugnúnai vb. rel. to zugón YOKE.