Appendix - He had his appendix out. (Give it some thought dear. What does it exactly mean? Is it a metaphor?)
Shrivel - The leaves had shriveled up.
Predominant - That phenomenon is predominant in thirties.
Invading - The weeds invade a garden. 
Cholera - The poor people caught cholera.
Hunker down - We hunkered down below the table.=under the table

Sagong, 

Try to avoid using metaphorical expressions with our vocabulary words.

Be more precise and use each word in a literal sense instead of using figurative speech. 

Using the word figuratively sometimes distorts the meaning of the whole structure when ,I presume, it's not really what you meant.

Remember that a sentence can be unquestionably correct in grammar but COULD BE logically faulty in a sense so I'd like you to pay attention more on brevity and coherence instead of just simply using a word in a sentence. Thanks for your active participation in the class. Keep it up!~~

Vanessa