painted beauty

[ peyn-tid byoo-tee ]

noun

1. a brightly colored butterfly, Batesia hypochlora, of Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador, that is predominantly blue with an orangish-pink patch on each forewing.

Word History and Origins

Origin of painted beauty¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

She was the woman of the faded, yellow book, and the painted beauty at the Metropolitan.

From Project Gutenberg

But banks and braes, and straths and streams, and woods and waves, though very dear to memory, merely come up to the painted beauties of descriptive verse.

From Project Gutenberg

And ah! no false and fleeting love is mine, Such as for painted beauty feigns to pine; Nor doth my passion, although deep and strong, Seek its own wicked pleasure in thy wrong.

From Project Gutenberg

Sunday night was Lady Capel's great card-night, and the rooms were full of tables surrounded by powdered and painted beauties intent upon the game and the gold.

From Project Gutenberg

Beside this last, a labor calling for the most unremitting, painstaking, persevering research, observation, and intelligence, the painted beauties of his butterflies were but as precious play.

From Project Gutenberg