A proprietary name for a soft, disposable paper tissue, used especially as a handkerchief, the noun Kleenex is used in similes expressing, in particular, disposability, ephemerality, fragility, weakness.
For example, the U.S. political commentator Sarah Elizabeth Cupp (born 1979) used the noun Kleenex in a simile in Listen to Donald Trump ignoring the rule of law, about Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th President of the USA from 2017 to 2021, published in the Daily News (New York City, New York, USA) of Wednesday 28th June 2023 [page 23, column 4]:
He [i.e., Donald Trump] used the office of the presidency to make his businesses more profitable and line his own pockets, and even started using his own voters’ donations as his personal piggy bank to pay off his mounting legal bills.
The parts of America he had little use for, he tossed like a Kleenex onto a landfill. Things like free speech, freedom of the press, entire clauses of the Constitution, checks and balances, separation of powers—none of this mattered to Trump unless it benefited him.
—Cf. also the phrase Kleenex music.
The earliest uses in similes of the noun Kleenex that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From Being Of Unsound Mind, by Jack Tarver, published in The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) of Friday 4th May 1945 [Vol. 77, No. 323, page 8, column 5]:
Adolf Hitler 1 has no children so there is some legal question as to his estate.
One thing is certain: He left Doenitz 2 the biggest headache of all.
Even before Adolf’s death, the greater Reich was coming apart like a kleenex bathing suit.
1 The Austrian-born German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (20th April 1889-30th April 1945) was the Chancellor of Germany from 1933 until his death.
2 The German admiral Karl Doenitz (1891-1980) was the President of Germany from 30th April to 23rd May 1945.
2-: From The Last Straw, by Jim Griffith, published in The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia, USA) of Tuesday 13th August 1946 [Vol. 120, No. 225, page 4, column 5]:
Personally, I like doctors. I’ve always had a lot of faith in the gents who thump you on the chest, instruct you to say ahhhh, and then motion towards the woman at the desk who collects five bucks on your way out.
But now, I’m quite frank to say, my faith in one physician has been washed away like a kleenex in a shower of rain.
3-: From American Ships Play at War In Backyard of Communists, by Fred Sparks, about U.S. manoeuvres in the Mediterranean, published in the Nashville Banner (Nashville, Tennessee, USA) of Thursday 2nd October 1947 [Vol. 72, No. 149, page 2, column 6]:
Behind the Dayton—cutting slices out of the water—are the cruisers Juneau and Manchester.
They are working overtime now, ducking and dodging to avoid planes simulating attack. Their guns paint balls of black smoke in the sky.
A direct hit by the Manchester! The sleeve falls to the water like a discarded Kleenex.
4-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Pine Splinters, published in The White Pine (Coeur d’Alene High School, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA) of Monday 7th February 1949 [Vol. 23, No. 18], itself published in The Coeur d’Alene Press (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA) of Monday 7th February 1949 [Vol. 43, No. 144, page 4, column 7]:
“I feel like a kleenex,” sniffed Marjorie Milenius, reaching for the box. “You look like one!” responded another student.
5-: From the column Under The Capitol Dome, by R. L. Chambers, published in The Daily Current-Argus (Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA) of Sunday 28th May 1950 [Vol. 64, No. 194; Section 3: page 6, column 4]:
SANTA FE—[…] The Chavez forces want to win this election. […]
[…]
And at one time the Chavez faction was keeping tabs on Frazier as insurance in case Dave didn’t come through. Frazier was their next best bet.
But […] when Dave entered the race, the Chavez boys dropped Frazier like a used Kleenex.
6-: From the sports column Pins and Needles, by Johnnie Welsh, published in the El Paso Herald-Post (El Paso, Texas, USA) of Wednesday 2nd August 1950 [Vol. 70, No. 182, page 12, column 1]:
WHERE TEXAS WESTERN SPRUNG UP AND raced ahead of the pack with championship football and tennis teams last year, they flopped like a wet Kleenex with their golf team.
7-: From the column Piney Woods Pete Says, published in The Atlanta Journal (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) of Wednesday 25th August 1954 [Vol. 72, No. 156, page 1, column 4]:
I been following Georgia politics since Hoke Smith and Joe Brown days but dog if’n I ever saw it so confused this close to election time.
[…]
There’s just one thing everybody I talk to seems pretty much agreed on: Marvin Griffin’s balloon has collapsed like a Kleenex kite in a thunderstorm.
8 & 9-: From two articles by Bob Williams, Telegram sports editor, published in The Evening Telegram (Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA):
8-: Of Monday 25th October 1954 [page 2B, column 5]—the following is about Bob Barthlomew, a tackle for Wake Forest football team:
In trying to stop Barthlomew, Tatum had two men assigned to do the job. Asked after the game who they were, Barthlomew said, “Darn if I know who they were. Number 72 and 74, or 75, I think.”
Number 75 for Maryland was Ray Blackburn, 6-1, 215-pounder who was hauled off the field after a Barthlomew block coved him like a wet kleenex.
9-: Of Tuesday 28th December 1954 [page 8, column 1]—the following is from an account of a basketball game between Duke University’s Blue Devils and West Virginia:
The ease with which the Devils rolled past West Virginia ranked as the biggest surprise of the first day of Classic play. Three Mountaineers came into the tournament touted as tough to handle, but crumpled before Duke like a wet Kleenex.
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