On the webpage en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai,

[ayao]

under the title "Origin", in the second paragraph, there is the sentence, "Historically, "shanzhai" is sometimes used as a metaphor to describe bandits who oppose and evade the corrupted authority to perform deeds they see as justified."

Should the word "adjective" be added before the word "metaphor", since adjectives are used to describe thing?

[jno]

not necessarily. You could say " 'forest' is used to describe a region of trees" and it would still be a noun.

[joggerjayne]

I can see where ayao is coming from.

I can see "shanzhai" as a noun...

... "Customs seized a lorry load of shanzhai"

Or as an adjective ...

... "Those watches are all shanzhai"

... "Robin Hood's men were shanzhai"

But in applying the adjective in that way, one is surely drawing a simple analogy ...

... rather that creating a metaphor.

[jno]

I thought the word 'describe' was ambiguous. Strictly, a 'describing word' is an adjective. But in this sense it might just mean 'sometimes used as a metaphor FOR bandits...' in which case it would be a noun, same as bandits.

But nouns are often used as adjectives anyway - Shakespeare did it all the time, and used them as verbs too.

"Customs seized a load of St Audrey's lace" (sold as cheap souvenirs at St Audrey's shrine)

eventually became 'tawdry lace'.

[joggerjayne]

I can see what the page is trying to say, with the "metaphor" thing, but it's not very well explained.