break a butterfly upon a wheel

Verb

break a butterfly upon the wheel (third-person singular simple present breaks a butterfly upon the wheel, present participle breaking a butterfly upon the wheel, simple past broke a butterfly upon the wheel, past participle broken a butterfly upon the wheel)

1. To inflict a punishment out of all proportion to the offence.
   • Let Paris tremble—“What? that Thing of ſilk,
     “Paris, that mere white Curd of Aſs’s milk?
     “Satire or Shame alas! can Paris feel?
     “Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?”
     Yet let me flap this Bug with gilded wings,
     This painted Child of Dirt that ſtinks and ſtings1734, Alexander Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot
2. To employ great exertions for insignificant ends.