Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various insects of the order Lepidoptera, characteristically having slender bodies, knobbed antennae, and four broad, usually colorful wings.
- n. A person interested principally in frivolous pleasure: a social butterfly.
- n. 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.
- n. Sports A race or a leg of a race in which this stroke is swum.
- n. A feeling of unease or mild nausea caused especially by fearful anticipation.
- v. To cut and spread open and flat, as shrimp.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The common English name of any diurnal lepidopterous insect; especially, one of the rhopalocerous Lepidoptera, corresponding to the old Linnean genus Papilio, called distinctively the butterflies. See Diurna, Rhopalocera, Lepidoptera, and Papilio.
- n. Figuratively, a person whose attention is given up to a variety of trifles of any kind; one incapable of steady application; a showily dressed, vain, and giddy person.
- n. A kind of flat made-up neck-tie.
- n. An herb otherwise called ragwort. Kersey, 1708.
- n. A local name for a mussel, Plagiola securis, found in the Mississippi river: so called from the shape of the valves. The shell is used in the pearl-button industry.
Wiktionary
- n. A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.
- v. To cut almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.
- v. To cut strips of surgical tape or plasters into thin strips, and place across a gaping wound to close it.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A general name for the numerous species of diurnal Lepidoptera.
WordNet 3.0
- n. diurnal insect typically having a slender body with knobbed antennae and broad colorful wings
- v. talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions
- n. a swimming stroke in which the arms are thrown forward together out of the water while the feet kick up and down
- v. flutter like a butterfly
- v. cut and spread open, as in preparation for cooking
Etymologies
- Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English butorflēoge, buttorflēoge, buterflēoge, perhaps a compound of butor- 'beater', mutation of bēatan 'to beat', and flēoge 'fly'. More at beat and fly. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English butterflye, from Old English butorflēoge : butor, butere, butter; see butter + flēoge, fly; see fly2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“With an effort, he kept himself from using the term butterfly catchers, “... gentlemen.””
“The term butterfly effect comes from chaos theory, where final outcomes can be completely unexpected given a very small initial impetus.”
“One that I think of as a butterfly is a woman who “shelved” my kitty-cat.”
“From women young to old, the butterfly is a universal symbol of beauty, freedom, and rebirth.”
“Of course, it was just Easter and the butterfly is a great metaphor for the soul for Christians as well, but it also works for ME.”
“I think the Greeks found something ominous or uncanny, something not to be lightly spoken of, in that all but disembodied spirit which we call a butterfly, and they called by the name of ψυχη {psychê}, the Soul.”
“We were there during the off season when there are few if any tourists there and unless one is especially interested in butterfly migration, I recommend the off season since part of the charm of this place is its seclusion.”
“The pixelated MSN butterfly is pretty horrifying, but I like the idea.”
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“This could be because of my ramblings about a certain butterfly that was a constant visitor to us this summer .... but she gets excited with the concept and that makes me feel comfortable with it.”
“It is a piece of chipboard cut from my Big Shot using the scallop square die cut and then decorated using the Kind and Caring Thoughts hostess stamp set and the butterfly from the Good Friend stamp set.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘butterfly’.
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Up In The Air @ Wordnik
List of words, terms, and phrases pertaining to or referencing anything that lives, traverses, moves in, uses, or otherwise occupies the space above the ground we walk on. Words and phrases contain...
aeroallergen, aerial, aerial mapping, aerial root, aerobe, aerobiology, aerobioscope, aelophilous, anemotropism, anemoclastic, anafront, antitrades and 273 more...
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EN - pseudo-English words
English words used by foreigners in a different sense than they would be used by native speakers + madeupical "English" words that sound English but are not recognized as such by native speakers of...
abseiling, advertising, agroboy, airco, air-condition, relooker, apart, autogrill, autostop, babykiller, baby-foot, babylift and 263 more...
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Redundancing
The Moves. Do~do~ditty!
tango, bolero, cha cha, foxtrot, foxtantino, hip hop, hustle, jive, merengue, two step, paso doble, quickstep and 219 more...
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You animal!
Names of animals that are also used to describe kinds of people. Nouns only, preferably single word.
For a related list, see sionnach's beastly verbs.rabbit, shark, hog, pussycat, bear, bull, skunk, hawk, wildcat, buck, slug, heifer and 112 more...
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Meat Parts: the Cuts, the Innards, an...
T-bone - Sounds good!
Shoulder - Alright.
Liver - Fine.
Sweetbread - Okay.
Gizzard - Pushing it.
Brains - What?!wing, wedge bone sirloin, veal, umbles, tri-tip, tripe, triangle steak, tournedo, top sirloin, top loin, tongue, thigh and 147 more...
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Nature and Environment
north, east, west, mountain, sea, beach, river, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, island and 205 more...
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Things We've Seen Moved By Ants
A list of things you've observed ants moving to and fro.
earwig, lacewing, sugar, catfood crumbs, leaf cuttings, grasshopper, spider, katydid, caterpillar, moth, butterfly, dirt and 14 more...
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Beautiful Compound Words
aftermath, afterthought, butterfly, campfire, colorblind, backhand, crossword, cupcake, dollhouse, drawbridge, dreadlock, dreamscape and 73 more...
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Things with wings
For fanciful birds, see reesetee's •Open List: Flights of Fancy.
For chickens, see Chickens.
For birds endemic to the United States and/or North America, see reesetee's Mo...airplane, dragonfly, pegasus, butterfly, Buffalo, robot bomb, periodical cicada, caduceus, angel, those flying monk..., cherub, housefly and 52 more...
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O.o
Things that give you a warm fuzzy sort of feeling.
crumpet, cream puff, bubbles, packed lunch, prezzies, stars, pillow, rain, old books, sheep, bikkie, lollipop and 41 more...
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Words the sound like their meaning
love, hate, butterfly, whisper, shout, boil, simmer, glide, kiss, wisp, hum, hammer and 30 more...
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My Favorites
peanut, chipmunk, pearl, blueberry, graceful, poof, scrumptious, corny, scrambled, blimp, classy, butterfly and 1 more...
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Words that start with B
butterfly, brain, broom, break, brick, brilliant, bubbles, balloons, bananas, bow, book, bunny and 37 more...
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This list is like butter
peanut butter, almond butter, butter of antimony, mineral butter, butter of arsenic, soy nut butter, apple butter, cocoa butter, butter bean, butter clam, butterfly, cacao butter and 72 more...
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The Kissing List
kiss, osculate, peck, butterfly, french, cataglottis, soul kiss, deep kiss, air kiss, Yankee dime, smooch, smack and 57 more...
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swim strokes and accompanying parts
tranation, crawl, trudgen, freestyle, sidestroke, frog kick, butterfly, australian crawl, dog paddle, breaststroke, " ' " ' " ' ", scissor kick and 12 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for butterfly.
bilby That's a truly great sentence: "Is a butterfly named for the color of its excrement or because it was really a thieving witch?" Apr 26, 2012
ruzuzu "Is a butterfly named for the color of its excrement or because it was really a thieving witch? The first suggestion rests on the fact that an early Dutch name for the butterfly was boterschijte. This name is as astonishing a phenomenon as the fact that anyone ever noticed the color of butterfly excrement. Apparently, however, when the butterfly was not busy leaving colorful traces of itself, it was stealing milk and butter. This was not because of its thievish nature but because it was really a mischievous witch in the form of a winged insect. So the second suggestion is that this predilection for butter larceny gave rise to the colorful insect's name."
--The American Heritage Dictionary, 3d Ed., page 262 Apr 26, 2012
Dan337 See “Butterfly Etymology”, Matthew Rabuzzi's “butterfly collection” of a “large variety of distinct words for 'butterfly' in various Indo-European languages.” Jul 9, 2011
bilby I can't believe it. Mar 11, 2011
strev Kraft came up with Margerinefly, but it never flew. Mar 11, 2011
john “Luongo employs the butterfly goaltending style, more fluid and nimble in the net.”
The New York Times, Live Analysis: Canada Beats the U.S. for Gold Medal, February 28, 2010 Mar 1, 2010
bilby The Indonesian equivalent dasi kupu-kupu 'butterfly necktie' looks like a calque from somewhere. Dec 4, 2008
sionnach Danish for "bow-tie". Dec 4, 2008
reesetee Oh, it does that all over the darn place. Nov 30, 2007
vanishedone WeirdNet strike: giving us the verb usage and including the word to be defined in the definition. Nov 30, 2007
oroboros The butterfly counts not months
But moments.
And has time enough.
--R. Tagore
Mar 9, 2007
oroboros Flutter by sweet butterfly... Feb 3, 2007