butterfly

It is true. I am like a butterfly, and I shall only live a little while.

a. 1931 (date written), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “[Autobiographical Fragment]”, in Edward D[avid] McDonald, editor, Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence, London: William Heinemann, published 1936, →OCLC, page 836:

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

butterfly tape; butterfly bandage; butterfly strips

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

Any of several plane curves that look like a butterfly; see Butterfly curve (transcendental) and Butterfly curve (algebraic).

I get terrible butterflies before an exam.

butterflies in one’s stomach
butterflies in one's stomach#English

(in the plural) Short for butterflies in one’s stomach (“A sensation of excited anxiety felt in the stomach”).

butterflies in one’s stomach

He was affable; therefore he was frivolous. The women liked him; therefore he was a butterfly.

1859, George Meredith, chapter 15, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

The day came indeed when her breathless auditors learnt from her in bewilderment that what ailed him was that he was, alas, simply not serious. Maisie wept on Mrs. Wix's bosom after hearing that Sir Claude was a butterfly[…].

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

(finance) A combination of four options of the same type at three strike prices giving limited profit and limited risk.

One potential butterfly could be JFK having another son the year after the POD instead of a daughter.

(alternate history) A random change in an aspect of the timeline seemingly unrelated to the primary point of divergence, resulting from the butterfly effect.

(sports) 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.

What does it mean to be a butterfly in Pattaya? It means, just like a butterfly briefly visits many flowers, you will briefly visit many different girls.

2022 December 9, Darren C, “Paying For Bar Girls, Sex in Pattaya”, in Pattaya Unlimited:

A person who changes partners frequently.

(mining) A safety link or detaching hook above the cage attached to the winding rope to prevent the cage from being overwound.

хьэнтӏэрэпӏый

ḥɛntʼɛrɛpʼəj

pennevoegel (Achterhoeks, Drents, Sallands)

vlinder (Achterhoeks, Drents, Gronings, Sallands)

tuuliviiri

someone seen as unserious, flighty and unreliable

perhonen

finance: type of combination of four options

perhosen siivenisku

random change working through butterfly effect

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, and/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-shitter”)). 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”).


butterfly

butterflied shrimp

Butterfly the chicken before you grill it.

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

After everyone had obeyed his commands, the lieutenant motioned for two medics that now appeared to enter the room and attend to Dr. Carter. They bandaged him up, butterflying some of the deeper gashes and gave him a couple of shots.

2006, Paul Garber, Newton's Force, page 256:

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

Pearl Harbor not happening would've butterflied Taylor Swift.

(transitive, of the point of divergence of an alternate history scenario) 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.

en-verb

butterfly (third-person singular simple present butterflies, present participle butterflying, simple past and past participle butterflied)

butterflies (present singular third-person)
butterflying (participle present)
butterflied (participle past)
butterflied (past)