mourning cloak


noun
  1. an anglewing butterfly, Nymphalis antiopa, widely distributed in Europe and North America, having velvety, dark-brown wings with purple spots and pale-yellow edges.

Origin of mourning cloak

1
First recorded in 1600–10

Words Nearby mourning cloak

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use mourning cloak in a sentence

  • George Prince was there, standing against the walls shrouded in his mourning cloak, watching the scene with alert, roving eyes.

  • In their habits they are quite similar to the caterpillars of the Mourning-cloak.

    Butterflies Worth Knowing | Clarence M. Weed
  • This was the mourning cloak, with me the first vernal butterfly.

    Bird Neighbors | Neltje Blanchan
  • I had made a mourning-cloak of the apron by tying it, hind part before, about my neck, whence it drooped to my heels.

    When Grandmamma Was New | Marion Harland
  • The mourning cloak, the first butterfly to be seen in spring, has passed the winter in my "Slabsides."

British Dictionary definitions for mourning cloak

mourning cloak

noun
  1. the US name for Camberwell beauty

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012