Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A pupa, especially of a butterfly.
- noun The hardened case of a pupa.
- noun A protected stage of development.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A form which butterflies, moths, and most other insects assume when they abandon the larval or caterpillar state and before they arrive at their winged or perfect state; specifically, the pupa of a butterfly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The pupa state of certain insects, esp. of butterflies, from which the perfect insect emerges. See
pupa , andaurelia (a).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
pupa of abutterfly ormoth , enclosed inside acocoon , in whichmetamorphosis takes place
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun pupa of a moth or butterfly enclosed in a cocoon
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As soon as it is grown big enough and fat enough, the grub hangs itself up as a "chrysalis" which is a Greek word that may be freely rendered into "golden jewel."
Woodland Tales Ernest Thompson Seton 1903
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The chrysalis is what the silkworm becomes when it finishes spinning its cocoon.
Boing Boing: December 19, 2004 - December 25, 2004 Archives 2004
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We also never hear the word chrysalis without thinking of Miss Waterman.
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For insects produce a scolex first; the scolex after developing becomes egg-like (for the so-called chrysalis or pupa is equivalent to an egg); then from this it is that a perfect animal comes into being, reaching the end of its development in the second change.
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A moth just issuing from his chrysalis is the only being which seems to have felt his soporific influence; whereas the other god I have mentioned may vaunt the glory of subduing the most formidable of animals.
Dreams Waking Thoughts and Incidents Beckford, William 1891
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Moth caterpillars spin a cocoon while butterfly larvae form a leathery shell called a chrysalis.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com David Mizejewski 2011
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A moth just issuing from his chrysalis is the only being which seems to have felt his soporific influence; whereas the other god I have mentioned may vaunt the glory of subduing the most formidable of animals.
Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents William Beckford 1801
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"The metaphor for 'chrysalis' as a bass fiddle with no strings and a small pistol" is so profoundly smart, and on the mark!
Literate Reply 2010
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Equipped with a fiscally responsible and well-paid wife I did actually give up a perfectly good day job to ‘become a writer’ as if some kind of chrysalis was involved.
Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money « Whatever 2008
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In the nymphalid butterflies, the pupa is often called a 'chrysalis' on account of the golden hue displayed by the cuticle, and the term
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