butterflies
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Related to butterflies: butterflies in stomach
but·ter·fly
(bŭt′ər-flī′)n.
1. Any of numerous insects of the order Lepidoptera, having four broad, usually colorful wings, and generally distinguished from the moths by having a slender body and knobbed antennae and being active during the day.
2. A person interested principally in frivolous pleasure: a social butterfly.
3. Sports
a. 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.
b. A race or a leg of a race in which this stroke is swum.
4. butterflies A feeling of unease or mild nausea caused especially by fearful anticipation.
tr.v. but·ter·flied, but·ter·fly·ing, but·ter·flies
To cut and spread open and flat, as shrimp.
[Middle English butterflye, from Old English butorflēoge : butor, butere, butter; see butter + flēoge, fly; see fly2.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
butterflies
(ˈbʌtəˌflaɪz)pl n
informal tremors in the stomach region due to nervousness
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
Butterflies
See also insects.
an order of insects comprising the butterflies, moths, and skippers, that as adults have four membranous wings more or less covered with scales. — lepidopterous, lepidopteral, adj.
a branch of zoology that studies butterflies and moths. — lepidopterist, n.
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.