Zeugma: One word used in more than one sense
From English Composition by W. Davidson; The Might and Mirth of Literature,
by John Walker Vilant Macbeth.
Zeugma (Greek, ‘a joining’) is a figure of syntax in which one word, often a verb, has the same grammatical relationship to two or more other words in the sentence, but it is used in a different sense at least one of the times:
He hit the bottle, the beach, and John, in that order.
I. Different applications
In zeugma, one of the applications of the word may be literal, and one of the applications may be idiomatic or metaphorical.
“You held your breath and the door for me.” -- Alanis Morissette lyric
II. Often humor is intended
The off-beat or unexpected dichotomy of connections displayed in a zeugma may make us smile.
“She looked at the object with suspicion and a magnifying glass.” --Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers
III. Sometimes includes parallelism
Zeugma lends itself to a balanced construction which is pleasing to the ear.
“We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” --attributed to Benjamin Franklin
IV. Easily misconstrued
Zeugma can be rather a fault than a figure. If the author is not intentional in his use of zeugma, misplaced modifiers may make the meaning of the sentence nonsensical or unclear.
She dug for gold and for praise in the ground.
