Search the Dictionary

To sigh; to flutter; to languish. [Poetic] The whispering breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees. Pope.

A genus of butterflies.

Resembling the butterfly.

The division of Lepidoptera which includes the butterflies.

The typical butterflies.

in any part of the body; palsy. See Hemiplegia, and Paraplegia. Also used figuratively. "Utter paralysis of memory." G. Eliot. Mischievous practices arising out of the paralysis of the powers of ownership. Duke of Argyll (1887).

Arch.), a hinge with so great a projection from the wall or frame as to allow a door or shutter to swing back flat against the wall. -- Long Parliament, Rump Parliament. See under Long, and Rump.

Any one of numerous species of butterflies belonging to the genus Parnassius. They inhabit the mountains, both in the Old World and in America.

A word; an oral utterance. [Obs.]

A word; an oral utterance. [Obs.]

Quarter; region; district; -- usually in the plural. "The uttermost part of the heaven." Neh. i. 9. All parts resound with tumults, plaints, and fears. Dryden.

To cause to pass the lips; to utter; to pronounce; hence, to promise; to pledge; as, to pass sentence. Shak. Father, thy word is passed. Milton.

A small mass, as of butter, shaped by pats. It looked like a tessellated work of pats of butter. Dickens.

ans situated at the bases of the anterior wings of lepidopterous insects. See Illust. of Butterfly.

To mutter; to mumble; as, to patter with the lips. Tyndale. Etym: [In this sense, and in the following, perh. from paternoster.]

Uttering few words; brief in speech. [R.]

In common usage, the species in general or collectively; a peafowl. Peacock butterfly (Zoöl.), a handsome European butterfly (Hamadryas Io) having ocelli like those of peacock. -- Peacock fish (Zoöl.), the European blue-striped wrasse (Labrus variegatus); -- so called on account of its brilliant colors. Called also co…

To utter or give out loud sounds. There let the pealing organ blow. Milton.

In utter confusion; with confused violence. "Men, horses, chariots, crowded pellmell." Milton.

To write or mark with a pencil; to paint or to draw. Cowper. Where nature pencils butterflies on flowers. Harte.