TROPE, in rhetoric, a kind of figure of speech, whereby a word is removed from its first and natural signification, and applied with advantage to another thing, which it does not originally mean; but only stands for it, as it has a relation to, or connection with it: as in this sentence, God is my rock. Here the trope lies in the word rock, which being firm and immovable, excites in our minds the notion of God's unfailing power, and the steady support which good men receive from their dependence upon him.