danaid

Pronunciation: /dəˈneɪ.ɪd/

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun large tropical butterfly with degenerate forelegs and an unpleasant taste

In classic literature

Good hope remains there at the bottom, as in Pandora’s bottle; and not despair, as in the puncheon of the Danaids. — Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais
The sieve-bucket task is widespread from the Danaids of the Greeks to the leverets of Uncle Remus, who, curiously enough, use the same rhyme: “Fill it wid moss en dob it wid clay.” Cf., too, No. xxiii. — English Fairy Tales, Unknown
They knew that the finest grasshoppers abounded in the long grass by the brook; they knew that the currant-bushes dropped fatness in the form of smooth, green worms; they knew that the dome of an ant-hill rising against the distant woods stood for a garner of plenty; they knew that strawberries, though not really insects, were almost as delicious; they knew that the huge danaid butterflies were good, safe game, if they could only catch them, and that a slab of bark dropping from the side of a rotten log was sure to abound in good things of many different kinds; and they had learned, also, that yellow-jackets, mud-wasps, woolly worms, and hundred-leggers were better let alone. — Wild Animals I Have Known, Ernest Thompson Seton

Synonyms

danaid butterfly

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms): butterfly
Narrower (hyponyms): monarch

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danaid

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In classic literature

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