Metaphor & Figuration
Transferred Epithet / Hypallage
Applying a modifier to a word other than the one it logically describes: “a sleepless night.” The person is sleepless; transferring the quality makes it characterize the whole experience.
"Once more the storm is howling, and half hid / Under this cradle-hood and coverlid / My child sleeps on" → "murderous innocence of the sea" — Yeats
Don't confuse it with Epithet. A plain epithet sits on its rightful noun; hypallage is the deliberate misdelivery.
Examples
He lay awake through a sleepless night.
Sleeplessness belongs to the man, but the adjective is transferred to the night.
Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as transferred epithet / hypallage.
Anaphora 5 Metaphor 4 Asyndeton 4
The rest of the family
Metaphor Simile Catachresis Metonymy Synecdoche Personification Prosopopoeia Pathetic Fallacy Metalepsis Symbol Allusion Mythopoesis