Word.ws English Dictionary

break a butterfly upon the wheel

break a butterfly upon the wheel verb: to inflict a punishment out of all proportion to the offence.

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.

Forms of break a butterfly upon the wheel

third-person singular presentbreaks a butterfly upon the wheel
present participlebreaking a butterfly upon the wheel
pastbroke a butterfly upon the wheel
past participlebroken a butterfly upon the wheel
alternative formbreak a butterfly on a wheel
alternative formbreak a butterfly on the wheel
alternative formbreak a butterfly upon a wheel
alternative formbreak a fly on a wheel
alternative formbreak a fly on the wheel
alternative formbreak a fly upon a wheel
alternative formbreak a fly upon the wheel

Origin of break a butterfly upon the wheel

Coined by English poet Alexander Pope in 1734 in Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.

Questions about break a butterfly upon the wheel

What does break a butterfly upon the wheel mean?
Break a butterfly upon the wheel means to inflict a punishment out of all proportion to the offence.
What part of speech is break a butterfly upon the wheel?
Break a butterfly upon the wheel is a verb.
What is the past tense of break a butterfly upon the wheel?
The past tense of break a butterfly upon the wheel is broke a butterfly upon the wheel.

Words near break a butterfly upon the wheel in the dictionary

  1. Breage
  2. break
  3. break a butterfly on a wheel
  4. break a butterfly on the wheel
  5. break a butterfly upon a wheel
  6. break a butterfly upon the wheel
  7. break a fly on a wheel
  8. break a fly on the wheel
  9. break a fly upon a wheel
  10. break a fly upon the wheel
  11. break a lance

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break a butterfly upon the wheel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-break a butterfly upon the wheel.wav.

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