entire human body in relation to clothing ("shirt off my back") "back" or "neck", used to mean a person's entire self in relation to being bothered ("get off my back" or "we'll have the police on our necks" "brain" for intelligence or a smart person, as in "the class brain" or "the brains of the operation" or "where's your brain" "back" or "neck", used to mean a person's whole self or physical being or physical life, as in the sayings "to have someone's back" or "save one's neck" "butt" or "ass", used to indicate a person's entire self or body ("get your butt on a plane" or "the boss fired my ass") The names of affiliates or subdivisions of large corporations are sometimes used to refer to the entire corporation: Chevrolet, Holden (in Oceania), or Opel (in Europe) to represent the entirety of General Motors, where using the most common GM brand in each region represents the entirety of General Motors Activision or Blizzard to refer to holding parent company Activision Blizzard Regional demonyms are sometimes used to refer to a whole people or ethnic group: "Yankee" is used, especially outside of the United States, to refer to Americans in general (despite the original meaning of the word being of a inhabitant of New England) Other examples include an individual object being used to refer to a larger object or group of which it is a part: "bread" for food in general, as in "my job puts bread in my children's mouths" "pork bellies" for commodities to be traded "head" for counting individual farm animals (e.g. "twelve head of cattle" for "twelve cows, bulls, etc.") "Big Ben" for Elizabeth Tower "motor" for automobile (as in the corporation General Motors or the word "Motors" used in the name of a car dealership) similarly, "wheels" for automobile, "jet" for jet(-propelled) airplane, "sail" for sailing ship "gun", used to refer to the shooter as well as his firearm (e.g., "he was a hired gun") "body" for a whole person, as in the words, "somebody", "anybody", "everybody", "nobody" or "a body", as in "can't a body have some peace and quiet?" "soul", meaning a whole person, as "don't tell a soul" See also Metonymy Synecdoche Totum pro parte Geographical renaming References Figures of speech Latin words and phrases Rhetoric Synecdoche