The authors take as departure point the meaning of the concept of “dynamics of metaphor”, as it has been firstly proposed within the framework of psycholinguistics and applied linguistics, and present an alternative cognitive linguistic perspective, complemented by a sequential analytic approach to conversational interaction. Based on C. Muller’s previously elaborated dynamic view on metaphor, the present paper shows that metaphor activation can be empirically accounted for and that there are various degrees of metaphoricity which are foregrounded over the course of a conversation when a metaphor is activated. The degrees to which metaphors are activated in conversation can be also empirically determined using descriptive methods.