Definitions for butterfly
ˈbʌt ərˌflaɪbut·ter·f·ly

Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. butterflynoun

   diurnal insect typically having a slender body with knobbed antennae and broad colorful wings

2. butterfly, butterfly strokeverb

   a swimming stroke in which the arms are thrown forward together out of the water while the feet kick up and down

3. butterflyverb

   flutter like a butterfly

4. butterflyverb

   cut and spread open, as in preparation for cooking

   "butterflied shrimp"

5. chat up, flirt, dally, butterfly, coquet, coquette, romance, philander, mashverb

   talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions

   "The guys always try to chat up the new secretaries"; "My husband never flirts with other women"

Wiktionary(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. butterflynoun

   A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.

2. butterflynoun

   Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable.

3. butterflynoun

   The butterfly stroke.

4. butterflynoun

   A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.

   butterfly tape

5. butterflyverb

   To cut almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.

6. butterflyverb

   To cut strips of surgical tape or plasters into thin strips, and place across a gaping wound to close it.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Butterflynoun

   A beautiful insect, so named because it first appears at the beginning of the season for butter.

   Etymology: butterflege, Saxon.

   Eftsoons that damsel, by her heav’nly might,
   She turned into a winged butterfly,
   In the wide air to make her wand’ring flight. Edmund Spenser.

   Tell old tales, and laugh
   At gilded butterflies; and hear poor rogues
   Talk of court news. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

   And so befel, that as he cast his eye
   Among the colworts on a butterfly,
   He saw false Reynard. John Dryden, Fables.

   That which seems to be a powder upon the wings of a butterfly, is an innumerable company of extreme small feathers, not to be discerned without a microscope. Nehemiah Grew.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Butterflynoun

   a general name for the numerous species of diurnal Lepidoptera

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Butterfly

   A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. Butterflies comprise the true butterflies, the skippers and the moth-butterflies. All the many other families within the Lepidoptera are referred to as moths. The earliest known butterfly fossils date to the mid Eocene epoch, 40–50 million years ago. Butterflies exhibit polymorphism, mimicry and aposematism. Some, like the Monarch, will migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants. Some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees; however, some species are agents of pollination of some plants, and caterpillars of a few butterflies eat harmful insects. Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. butterfly

   A type of insect.

   Butterflies are so beautiful to watch as they dance together in pairs.

   
   

   Submitted by MaryC on April 15, 2020  

Matched Categories

1. • Cooking
   • Flit
   • Lepidopterous Insect
   • Spread
   • Talk

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'butterfly' in Nouns Frequency: #2800

Anagrams for butterfly »

1. flutterby

How to pronounce butterfly?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say butterfly in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of butterfly in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of butterfly in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of butterfly in a Sentence

1. Richard Bach:

   What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

2. Felix Grewe:

   It's interesting to reaffirm that what people have been thinking for nearly 100 years is true, that this was a species driven to extinction by human activities, when this butterfly was collected 93 years ago, nobody was thinking about sequencing its DNA. That's why we have to keep collecting, for researchers 100 years in the future.

3. Nathaniel Hawthorne:

   Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

4. Christine Morgan:

   I think The Butterfly Foundation's a marketing ploy to adults and to parents who have been inundated with the messaging of : do not let your child get fat. In this time, when obesity is threatening, don't let your child get fat. And since when did that translate into a toddler having to be so concerned about putting on weight ? That to me is just taking it too far.

5. Corrie Moreau:

   Museomics is the use of museum collections for genome sequencing and other analytical techniques that could not even be imagined when the majority of museum specimens were collected, what makes this so groundbreaking is that we can address questions that can not be answered any other way. This study is a great example of this since we can not go out and collect the Xerces blue butterfly and the only way to address genetic questions about this species is by turning to museum collections.

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