butterflying
- 1Present participle and gerund of butterfly.
The chef was butterflying a leg of lamb for the holiday roast.
Butterflying the fish lets the marinade reach every part of the flesh.
Note
One -ing form carries three quite different verbs. In the kitchen it means splitting meat or fish so it opens flat like a pair of wings. In first aid it means closing a gaping wound with thin strips of tape. In alternate history it means erasing later events and people through the butterfly effect. All three are transitive, so the form normally takes a direct object: butterflying the wound, a timeline butterflying away whole generations.
butterflying is a form of butterfly
butterfly, verb: To cut food almost entirely in half and spread the two halves apart, forming a shape like a butterfly's open wings. Full entry
- Forms
- butterflybutterflies he/she/itbutterflying -ing formbutterflied past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- butterfly → butterflying: add -ing
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