Zeugma
Figures of speechYoking a concrete and an abstract term under the same verb: she took her coat and her leave.
Example
"She arrived in a taxi and a foul mood."
Zeugma makes two complements that don't operate on the same plane — one concrete, one abstract — depend on the same word, usually a verb: "she arrived in a taxi and a foul mood." Syntax treats them as equals; meaning does the splits, and that gap produces the effect.
Depending on context, zeugma amuses (it's a classic spring of deadpan humor) or unsettles — the alloy of trivial and grave can be deeply melancholy. A wit's figure par excellence, it signals a voice that plays with language; reserve it for narrators and characters entitled to that play.
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