chrysalides

Noun

chrysalis (plural chrysalises or chrysalides or (rare) chrysalisses)

1. A butterfly pupa or the pupal stage of the butterfly lifestyle; (originally) any pupal stage of any insect wherein the pupa is largely inactive and takes no food.
   • Amongst the particular signs testifying the same thing, are also those exhibited by worms which feed on herbs, which, when they are to undergo a metamorphosis, encompass themselves as with a womb, that they may be born again, being therein changed into nymphs and chrysalisses, and presently into...1828, The Athanasian Creed, Extracted from the Apocalypse or Book of Revelations Explained, of Emanuel Swedenborg, Boston, Mass.: Adonis Howard, […], page 174
2. The bare hanging cocoon of butterfly pupae; (originally) any cocoon.
3. (figuratively) Any limiting environment or situation escaped during one's growth or development in the manner of a butterfly.
   • However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

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