butterfly

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“
We cannot understand how the butterfly is the very same creature which last autumn was a crawling caterpillar.

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Definitions (41)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun Any of various insects of the order Lepidoptera, characteristically having slender bodies, knobbed antennae, and four broad, usually colorful wings.
  2. noun A person interested principally in frivolous pleasure: a social butterfly.
  3. noun Sports A swimming stroke in which a swimmer lying face down draws both arms upward out of the water, thrusts them forward, and draws them back under the water in an hourglass design while performing a dolphin kick.
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Examples (50)

  • There, a shadow twisted on the floor; my shadow, but not me any more than a butterfly is the chrysalis from whence it emerges. —  F ;SF - vol 101 issue 03 - September 2001
  • The width of the butterfly is about 1.75 inches across the wingtips. —  What's That Bug?
  • The most visible way a moth differs from a butterfly is the way it holds its wings at rest, which tend to be away from the body and flat against the substrate whereas the butterfly folds its wings vertically over its back.
  • Characterized by the striking diagonal yellow band across its forewing, and its long yellow-filled tails, this butterfly is a joy to see in one's garden! —  Museum Blogs
  • Andrews 'victory in the butterfly was a sensational comeback effort.
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Words tagged butterfly

schmetterling · whirlabout · tawny emperor · many-spotted skipperling · sickle-winged skipper · common streaky-skipper · confused cloudywing · blackened bluewing · broken silverdrop · frosted flasher · painted lady

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This word has been looked up 207 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English butterflye, from Old English butorflēoge : butor, butere, butter; see butter + flēoge, fly; see fly2.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English butturflye, boterflye, etc., from Anglo-Saxon buttorfleóge, buterflēge (= Middle Dutch botervliege, Dutch botervlieg = German butterfliege), a butterfly, a large white moth, from butere, butter, + fleóge, a fly. Cf. Middle Dutch botervoghel, a butterfly, = German buttervogel, a large white moth (Middle Dutch voghel, Dutch vogel = German vogel = English fowl). The reason for the name is uncertain; it was probably at first applied to the yellow-species. Grimm says it has its name, as well as an old German name molkendieb (late Middle High German molkendiep), ‘milk-thief,’ from the fact that people formerly believed that the butterfly, or elves or witches in its shape, stole milk and butter; but the legend may have arisen out of the name. Another explanation, based on another name of the butterfly, Middle Dutch boterschijte, -schiete, -schete, refers it to the color of the excrement (schijte).
 

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/ˈbətərflai/
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