butterfly

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

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

(swimming) The butterfly stroke.

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

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

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

(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.