butterfly upon a wheel
- idiom
- Informal
:
mariposa sobre una rueda
- Trying to negotiate with the powerful corporation felt like a butterfly upon a wheel.
Examples
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The government's legal action seemed like a butterfly upon a wheel against a harmless protest.
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Many considered the harsh criticism just a butterfly upon a wheel for a minor mistake.
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His dramatic response was described as a butterfly upon a wheel by news commentators.
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His attempts to change the policy were just a butterfly upon a wheel.
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Many considered the harsh criticism just a butterfly upon a wheel for a minor mistake.
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His dramatic response was described as a butterfly upon a wheel by news commentators.
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The government's legal action seemed like a butterfly upon a wheel against a harmless protest.
Synonyms
3
5.4
A force that crushes anything in its path
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is an idiomatic metaphor (originally 'to break a butterfly upon a wheel') that relies on the cultural image of using a torture wheel on something delicate; a B1 learner who knows 'butterfly', 'upon' and 'wheel' would not reliably infer the sense of disproportionate or excessive force without knowledge of that figurative reference. The constituents do not combine following standard compositional patterns, so the meaning is not transparently derivable from the words alone.
Etymology
Butterfly upon a wheel paints the image of a tiny, delicate butterfly placed on a heavy punishment wheel, a shocking picture of a small thing facing a huge, cruel tool; one popular story uses this image to show when someone uses far too much force. That's why the phrase means 'using too much force or punishment for something small'.