Originally posted by creaky:

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i thought it was me who was omnipotent, or was the phrase 'like horse muck'

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Verbal irony is traditionally defined as the use of words to convey something other than, and especially the opposite of, the literal meaning of the words. One classic example is a speaker saying, “What lovely weather we are having!” as she looks out at a rainstorm

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Verbal irony is a figure of speech. The speaker intends to be understood as meaning something that contrasts with the literal or usual meaning of what he says. The different sorts of discrepancy between the meaning of what is said and what is in fact on the particular occasion meant with it give rise to different kinds of verbal irony:

In sarcasm, the two stand in opposition.

Example: Mother comes into the TV room and discovers her 11-year-old watching South Park instead of doing his homework, as he was set to a dozen minutes ago. Pointing to the screen she says, "Don't let me tempt you from your duties, kiddo, but when you're finished with your serious studies there, maybe we could take some time out for recreation and do a little math."

Example: Dad is finally out of patience with picking up after his son, who can't seem to be trained to put his dirty clothes in the hamper instead of letting them drop wherever he happens to be when he takes them off. "Would Milord please let me know when it pleases him to have his humble servant pick up after him?"

The term comes directly into English from the Greek sarkasmos, which in turn derives from the ugly verb sarkazsein, "to tear the flesh" (used of dogs). (You may have seen the root sark-, "flesh," in sarcophagos, a coffin ["flesh-eater" -- delightful idea!]). It's difficult to know whether this originated in the metaphorical idea that someone who uses sarcasm is "cutting up" the person or thing that's the target of his remark, or whether it refers to the more nearly literal idea of his being so angry that he's gnashing his teeth so passionately that he ends up biting his own lips! Either way, the idea that he is in a savage mood. But note that the term sarcasm in the technical rhetorical sense we've constructed (meaning the opposite of what you say) does not necessarily carry the implication that the speaker is being critical or feels hostility, as in the original Greek sense of the term, which carries over into our contemporary everday sense of the word. Bitter or hostile sarcasmis only a special case of "sarcasm" as we are defining the term here, which is broad enough to cover cases in which the speaker is paying a compliment or being gentle.

Example: "My, you've certainly made a mess of things!" could be said in congratulations to someone who's just graduated summa cum laude, or to a hostess who presents a spectacular dish prepared with obvious care and skill.

Examples: Chances are you actually read the first two above (the parental remonstrances) as not altogether nasty. They could be delivered this way, but there's quite a range of tones in which they might be couched. Many are the modes of nagging! Try delivering each remark as furiously hot ("savagely flaying," "flesh-tearing"); then as resigned grumbling; then as exasperated, out-of-patience; then as wheedling and whining; then as earnest pleading; finally as gently ribbing. The latter actually amounts to an ironic use of verbal irony: I pretend to be mean (by pretending to be respectful), but I'm really not. All this reminds us that detecting irony is only a first step (though essential) in registering what's going on. When reading, we've got to be attending to every available clue to voice.

In overstatement, the meaning that ordinarily attaches to what is said is an exaggeration of what the speaker uses it to mean.

Example: Someone tells us of an occasion on which he told an off-color joke about a grandmother and then realized to his surprise that his own grandmother, a prim and proper lady, happened to be standing right behind him. "I literally died," he says.

Well, if he literally died, we should be pretty spooked, because we're face to face with a corpse! The word "literally" here is itself being used figuratively, to mean something like "really" -- itself in the diminished sense of "not really but almost," or "intensely". And the phrase as a whole means something like "I almost fainted." Fainting is (often) a symptom of shock (which in some forms can kill), and is like death in involving loss of consciousness. Fainting falls considerably short of death, but the truth here is that the teller didn't even actually faint, either, but almost fainted -- felt as if he were going to faint. He didn't lose consciousness altogether, but experienced some disorientation and dizziness that was something on the verge of what one might feel just before fainting.

Note that this example of overstatement also incorporates metaphor and simile. It is the comparisons of wincing to fainting and of fainting to death that constitute the continuum along which the terminological displacement through exaggeration takes place.

Overstatement is still referred so sometimes today by the name given it by the ancient Greek students of rhetoric: hyperbole ("hy-PER-bo-lee"), from hyperballein (to exceed, hit beyond the mark, from hyper over + ballein to throw, cast). The adjective form is "hyperbolic."

Examples:

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"The speaker was somewhat hyperbolic in his praise of the deceased."
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"I got bored by his hyperbolic remarks."

In understatement,

Example: We visit our friend in the hospital. We know from his wife that the prognosis is bad, and also that our friend has been informed of his condition. When we enter, we ask him how he's feeling. "Well," he says, "I have been better."

Litotes ("lie-TOW-teez," from Greek litos, simple, plain) is a special form of understatement in which we affirm something by negating its contrary.

Examples:

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"She's not a bad cook." ==> She's quite a good cook.
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"He's not the world's best speller." ==> He's very poor at spelling.

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Originally posted by creaky:

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doh, it was the cat typing

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that would be sarcasm, not irony, in this case, craig.

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