Road kill?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Road kill?

“Road kill” in the figurative sense?

That’s road kill as a metaphor, as is the case in our example. In our example, Yahoo as road kill is a metaphor. Yahoo, an Internet company, is not an animal on the highway but is likened one such animal roaming on the road. On the information superhighway, that is, Yahoo is likened to a road kill, something killed by other, more powerful Internet companies.

Yahoo, by the way, was one of the biggest Internet firms in the 1990s. It is still pretty big where size is concerned but it is now a shell of its former self in terms of influence and vitality.

Anyways, to say “Yahoo has become road kill on the information superhighway” is to suggest that the former Internet giant is being bumped aside, if not run over entirely by other newer, more powerful or nimbler rivals on the information superhighway.

To use another road expression, Yahoo has fallen by the wayside.

The thing with road kill is that the event is generally accepted as nothing more than something a little unfortunate. An animal is killed but the perpetrator of the “crime” goes free. The car or truck driver is never blamed for killing the animal on the road. In fact, some drivers simply move on, never to even bother to speed down.

Likewise, when Yahoo is talked about as road kill, it is not particularly sympathized for its woes. More or less, it is viewed just as something unfortunate. More or less, it’s viewed as if it’s all Yahoo’s fault.