Adjective : the literal meaning of a word. ,a literal translation of Goethe. ,a literal description of conditions. ,the literal extermination of a city. ,a literal error.    From Dictionary.com. 

Among the more striking nonliteral uses I recall are the following.    From Wordnik.com.  [languagehat.com: DUAL PRONOUNS.] Reference

Genesis or Job, meant to illustrate and present a truth in graphic but nonliteral form.    From Wordnik.com.  [Warranted Christian Belief] Reference

The woman compiled my results and explained to me that I had some trouble with nonliteral language.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hope Unseen] Reference

A metaphor suggests comparison of the phenomenon with another by the nonliteral application of a word.    From Wordnik.com.  [Humanistic Nursing] Reference

Even Buddha's own words must by interpreted in a different nonliteral way if they make no sense or are unreasonable.    From Wordnik.com.  [Question Sessions with H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Concerning the Kalachakra Initiation ��� 2 Kalachakra and Western Science] Reference

I'm thinking mostly literal vs. nonliteral here, though I'm aware there are many more nuanced approaches and you have one of those.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Youyou, & Out of my Missouri] Reference

Moreover, statements with shared meanings may have both literal and nonliteral levels of interpretation or they may have only one or the other.    From Wordnik.com.  [Making Sense of Tantra ��� 2 The Authenticity of the Tantras] Reference

For 95% of recorded human history, there was not a clear distinction between literal historical truth and the truth conveyed by nonliteral stories.    From Wordnik.com.  [Clergy Project Nearing Goal of 10,000 Signatures - The Panda's Thumb] Reference

We are in Cannes “licking windows,” to borrow the funny French phrase faire du lèche-vitrines, the nonliteral translation being “window-shopping.”.    From Wordnik.com.  [Words in a French Life] Reference

Several attempted solutions have recently been under debate, all recognizing the nonliteral but some - how valuable character of primary religious discourse.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dictionary of the History of Ideas] Reference

They have literal meanings if they accord with the experience of the groups that accept them; they have nonliteral meanings if they refer to deeper levels of significance.    From Wordnik.com.  [Making Sense of Tantra ��� 2 The Authenticity of the Tantras] Reference

Thus Philo Judaeus may equate the hy - ponoia of a text with its latent theme, its mystery, its secret, its unexpressed, unseen, nonliteral, or simply intelligible meaning.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dictionary of the History of Ideas] Reference

Concrete/Literal Style but with nonliteral words in quotes.    From Wordnik.com.  [All Stories | The New York Observer] Reference

I'm sure many of the listeners of this podcast have a nonliteral view.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mormon Stories Podcast Archive] Reference

F. 2d at 1372-73 (supporting the Second Circuit's finding of comprehensive nonliteral similarity).    From Wordnik.com.  [unalog] Reference

Ah, it's weird though, I can handle the nonliteral meanings, and I LOVE metaphors when trying to explain physics to a layman.    From Wordnik.com.  [Wrong Planet Asperger / Autism Forums] Reference

In a generous manner; freely in a nonliteral manner; given or provided in a generous and openhanded way; befitting a man of free birth.    From Wordnik.com.  [Liberally Conservative] Reference

There was talk about the definition of expletive and what is a literal expletive vs. nonliteral, about the fleeting context vs. the contextural analysis.    From Wordnik.com.  [C - Advertising News] Reference

You’ll also find out that her definition of “literally” is rather a, er, nonliteral one.    From Wordnik.com.  [Divided by a common language: Richard Dawkins clarifies his position - The Panda's Thumb] Reference

What he did was normal, understandable, and nonliteral: It’s what makes Obama a reasonable man and a potentially good president.    From Wordnik.com.  [Chuck Klosterman on Pop] Reference

Madison wrote an essay lifting from Hume’s words without attribution, and fragmented nonliteral similarity: plagiarism, and copyright infringement, by today’s standards.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-02-01] Reference

(67) However, if you have received (in a nonliteral fashion).    From Wordnik.com.  [Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment] Reference

Twin Peaks, 996 F. 2d at 1372 (endorsing the taxonomy of "comprehensive nonliteral similarity" and "fragmented literal similarity" from the Nimmer treatise, 4 Nimmer §.    From Wordnik.com.  [unalog] Reference

'nonliteral uses of offensive' words, and thus did not cover images. ".    From Wordnik.com.  [B&C - Advertising News] Reference