| 词汇 | break a butterfly on the wheel |
| 词源 | break a butterfly on the wheel. Alexander Pope may have coined this phrase and certainly was the first to use it in a poem, “An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot” (1735): Satire or sense, alas! Can Sporus feel! Who breaks a butterfly upon the wheel. The “wheel” here is a cruel torture device used to break the bones of criminals. The phrase means to punish someone ex- cessively, to employ overkill. |
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