ZEUGMA

Zeugma is a figure of speech in which one verb controls two different direct objects, each in a different sense. For example, consider the following sentence:

"Whenever I shop at the Bijou, I get a bottle of perfume and a headache."

This sentence is using the poetic figure zeugma because to "get a bottle of perfume" involves a different sense of "get" than does to "get a headache."

 Literary examples include the following famous one by Alexander Pope in "The Rape of the Lock":

Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.

[Note: "tea" was pronounced "tay" in the eighteenth century.]

Neil Simon uses zeugma in the following line from "Barefoot in the Park":

"I'm not getting nasty; I'm getting chapped lips."