The white-topped wagons strained and stumbled in their exertions like fat sheep. underlined portion of the sentence above is an example which literary term?

The underlined portion, "strained and stumbled in their exertions like fat sheep," is an example of simile.

Here's why:

* Simile: A figure of speech that directly compares two things using the words "like" or "as."

In this case, the wagons are being compared to "fat sheep" to highlight their slow and struggling movement.