Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as `blatant' to mean `flagrant') or deliberately (as in a mixed metaphor: `blind mouths');
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Catachresis \Cat`a*chre"sis\, n. [L. fr. Gr. ? misuse, fr. ? to
misuse; kata` against + ? to use.] (Rhet.)
A figure by which one word is wrongly put for another, or by
which a word is wrested from its true signification; as, "To
take arms against a sea of troubles". --Shak. "Her voice was
but the shadow of a sound." --Young.
[1913 Webster] Catachrestic
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
catachresis
n 1: strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as
`blatant' to mean `flagrant') or deliberately (as in a
mixed metaphor: `blind mouths')