butterfly

An insect with a thin body and large, often brightly coloured wings.

• A butterfly landed on the flower.
• We saw yellow butterflies in the garden.
• This caterpillar will become a butterfly.

Common phrases: colourful butterfly, butterfly wings, butterfly garden

A small strip of sticky medical tape used to hold the edges of a cut together.

• The nurse applied a butterfly bandage.
• Butterfly strips held the small cut closed.
• Keep the butterfly tape dry until tomorrow.

Similar words: wound closure strip

Common phrases: butterfly bandage, butterfly strips, butterfly tape

An unexpected change in an imagined history caused indirectly by an earlier event changing.

• That different birth date is a butterfly.
• The writer added several butterflies to the alternate timeline.
• This butterfly has little connection to the original change.

Similar words: ripple effect

Common phrases: unexpected butterfly, possible butterfly, historical butterfly

To cut food almost in half and open it out flat, leaving the two sides joined.

• Butterfly the chicken before cooking it.
• She butterflied the prawns with a sharp knife.
• Can you butterfly this piece of meat?

Similar words: split open

Common phrases: butterfly a chicken, butterfly the shrimp, butterfly the meat

To indirectly change later events or prevent particular people from existing by changing an earlier event.

• That change would butterfly her birth away.
• The author butterflied the election by changing an earlier war.
• An altered timeline can butterfly people who were born later.

How to use it: butterfly someone/something away (The earlier peace treaty butterflied several future leaders away.)

Common phrases: butterfly someone away, butterfly later events