Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A use of surgical tape, cut into thin strips and placed across an open wound to hold it closed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: attributive
Topics: medicine, sciences
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The butterfly stroke.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports, swimming
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any of several plane curves that look like a butterfly; see Butterfly curve (transcendental) and Butterfly curve (algebraic).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Ellipsis of butterflies in one’s stomach (“A sensation of excited anxiety felt in the stomach”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, in-plural
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Someone seen as being unserious and (originally) dressed gaudily; someone flighty and unreliable.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A combination of four options of the same type at three strike prices giving limited profit and limited risk.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: business, finance
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A random change in an aspect of the timeline seemingly unrelated to the primary point of divergence, resulting from the butterfly effect.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: alternate history
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A type of stretch in which one sits on the ground with the legs folded into a shape like that of a butterfly's wings, slightly rocking them up and down, resembling the wings fluttering.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person who changes partners frequently.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A safety link or detaching hook above the cage attached to the winding rope to prevent the cage from being overwound.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: business, mining
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
party switcher; turncoat.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Philippine, Philippines, derogatory, often
Topics: government, politics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: balimbing, apostate, butterfly, changeling, defector, runagate, traitor, transfuge, turncloak, turncoat, turntippet, withersake
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cut (food) almost entirely in half and spread the halves apart, in a shape suggesting the wings of a butterfly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cut strips of surgical tape or plasters into thin strips, and place across (a gaping wound) to close it.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cause events after the point of divergence to not happen as they did in real history, and people conceived after the point of divergence to not exist in recognizable form, due to the random variations introduced by the butterfly effect.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a swimming stroke in which the arms are thrown forward together out of the water while the feet kick up and down
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: butterfly stroke
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: swimming stroke
noun
diurnal insect typically having a slender body with knobbed antennae and broad colorful wings
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: lepidopterous insect, lepidopteron, lepidopteran
Narrower terms: nymphalid, nymphalid butterfly, brush-footed butterfly, four-footed butterfly, ringlet, ringlet butterfly, danaid, danaid butterfly, pierid, pierid butterfly, sulphur butterfly, sulfur butterfly, lycaenid, lycaenid butterfly
verb
talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: chat up, flirt, dally, coquet, coquette, romance, philander, mash
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: talk, speak
Narrower terms: wanton, vamp
verb
cut and spread open, as in preparation for cooking
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: unfold, spread, spread out, open
verb
flutter like a butterfly
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: flit, flutter, fleet, dart
History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gwṓws Proto-Hellenic *gwous Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs) Proto-Indo-European *tewh2- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Indo-European *tuh2rós Proto-Hellenic *tūrós Ancient Greek τυρός (turós) Ancient Greek βούτῡρον (boútūron)bor. Latin būtȳrumbor. Proto-West Germanic *buterā Old English butere Proto-Indo-European *plew- Proto-Indo-European *plewk- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *pléwketi Proto-Germanic *fleuganą Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ Proto-West Germanic *fleugā Old English flēoge Old English buterflēoge Middle English boterflye English butterfly From Middle English buterflie, butturflye, boterflye, from Old English buterflēoge, equivalent to butter + fly. Cognate with Dutch botervlieg, German Butterfliege (“butterfly”). The name may have originally been applied to butterflies of a yellowish color, or reflected a belief that butterflies ate milk and butter (compare German Molkendieb (“butterfly”, literally “whey-thief”) and Low German Botterlicker (“butterfly”, literally “butter-licker”)), or that they excreted a butter-like substance (compare Dutch boterschijte (“butterfly”, literally “butter-excretor”)). Compare also German Schmetterling from Schmetten (“cream”), German Low German Bottervögel (“butterfly”, literally “butter-fowl”). More at butter, fly. An alternate theory suggests that the first element may have originally been Old English butor- (“beater”), a mutation of bēatan (“to beat”), but this would not explain the cognates in other languages or the other names formed with milk products. Superseded non-native Middle English papilion (“butterfly”) borrowed from Old French papillon (“butterfly”). Contrary to popularised belief, the form "butterfly" was not derived from an earlier flutterby.
Across languages
718 source translations are retained for this English entry.
