From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishRelated topics: Insectsbutterflybut‧ter‧fly /ˈbʌtəflaɪ $ -ər-/●くろまる●くろまる○しろまる noun (plural butterflies) [countable]1
Image of butterfly
HBIa type of insect that has large wings, often with beautifulcolours2 →have/get butterflies (in your stomach)3 →the butterfly4CHANGE YOUR MINDsomeone who usually moves on quickly from one activity or person to the nextGwen’s a real social butterfly.Examples from the Corpusbutterfly• These people can take many blows, but I, I am fragile as a butterfly.• The snails had vanished, but now some one seemingly had traced a picture of a butterfly in the dirt.• A butterfly wing has a dynamically changing structure that allows myriadresponses to its own induced wing vortices.• I feel a kind of reverence in late summer when I visit that abandonedbutterflygarden.• He collectedrocks and butterflies and devouredaccounts of recentscientificexpeditions.• At about the seventeenth day the first butterflies will probably start to emerge.• For the patternedbutterflies I used a small part of the leaf design.• Gwen's a real social butterfly.• I shut my eyes and tried to see the butterfly.OriginbutterflyOld Englishbuterfleoge, from butere ( → BUTTER1) + fleoge"fly"; perhaps because many types of butterfly are yellow, or because people believed that butterflies steal milk and butter