What is "tropes"

Usage examples of "tropes".

They sparkled too with the names of things in themselves beautiful, but whether these things were in general wisely or fairly used in his figures and tropes and comparisons, he was now more than doubtful.

Dickens to Grisham has relied on a tried-and-true stable of tropes, and the interesting thing is watching how they use them and what they choose to illuminate by that usage.