3. Idiom, Metaphor, Personification, or Simile? When she held her newborn baby for the first time, her heart melted.

1. The phrase is “her heart melted.” 2. The phrase is used figuratively. Her heart does not literally melt when she holds her newborn baby. 3. A simile would include a comparison using “like” or “as” (e.g., “her heart melted like ice”), but that is not present here. 4. An idiom is an expression that has a meaning not deducible from its individual words. While “her heart melted” is understood figuratively in context, its meaning is more directly conveyed by comparing her emotional reaction to the literal process of melting. 5. Personification involves giving human characteristics to something non-human. In this case, the heart is a human organ; the description does not attribute human qualities to it that it wouldn’t normally have. 6. Since the expression equates her emotional response with the process of melting without using “like” or “as,” it is functioning as a direct comparison. This is the hallmark of a metaphor. \[ \text{Answer: Metaphor.} \]