How to Use swallowtail in a Sentence
swallowtail
noun-
As a swallowtail, like a folded note, sways on a long blossom.
—Rae Armantrout, The New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2022
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The parsley worm, which grows up to be the Eastern black swallowtail, feeds on parsley, dill and fennel.
—Dan Gill, NOLA.com, 24 June 2017
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In due course, a floor manager in a swallowtail coat and striped trousers appeared.
—David Marchese, New York Times, 2 May 2021
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Testers found the high ankle swallowtail feature to be a bit extraneous, though the heel cup does hold the foot in place.
—Outside Online, 27 July 2022
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With the flowers have come swarms of Western tiger swallowtail butterflies and Sphinx moths the size of hummingbirds.
—Louis Sahagun, latimes.com, 14 July 2017
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It’s not yet clear if there are enough lime swallowtail here to make a viable population.
—Bill Kearney, Sun Sentinel, 8 Feb. 2023
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For instance, the giant swallowtail caterpillar mimics bird poop–right up to the smell.
—National Geographic, 26 Mar. 2017
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For instance, the giant swallowtail caterpillar mimics bird poop–right up to the smell.
—National Geographic, 26 Mar. 2017
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The spicebush swallowtail, for example, which is found throughout the eastern U.S., emerges from its egg mottled in black and white.
—Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2023
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Be prepared: Dill is a food source for swallowtail caterpillars.
—Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, Indianapolis Star, 19 May 2018
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Wealthy diners in swallowtail coats feasted on small songbirds soaked in Armagnac, flambéed, and then eaten whole.
—Brenda Wineapple, New Republic, 21 Dec. 2017
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The exterior side of the Kawana’s swallowtail is about a half-inch more pronounced than the interior side and is apparently meant to distribute the weight of a heel strike.
—Joe Jackson, Outside Online, 24 Mar. 2022
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Luckily that doesn’t seem to bother the beautiful anise swallowtail, which uses the plant as its larval host (and lots of other plants in the carrot family).
—Molly Marquand, Good Housekeeping, 28 July 2016
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The main body of material in the 336-page book focuses on individual species, from swallowtails to silk moths.
—Sally Peterson, oregonlive, 9 Dec. 2019
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There are a handful of specialized shapes, including a swallowtail in the Weston line, that our testers prefer on road-closing powder days.
—Drew Zieff, Popular Mechanics, 7 Dec. 2020
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At the crest of central Oregon’s 5,325-foot McKenzie Pass, a black-and-gold swallowtail butterfly landed on the handlebars of my bicycle before flitting to my open hand.
—Brian E. Clark, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2019
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The deck, now heat- and slip-resistant white porcelain tile instead of red brick, steps down from the back door and stretches toward an arbutus tree whose flowers and fruit attract hummingbirds and swallowtails.
—Emily Young, Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2019
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Its flavors seem airborne, flitting around your mouth like a swallowtail and touching down on your palate just long enough to tantalize you into wanting another sip.
—Washington Post, 30 July 2021
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Ten millimeters of taper and an easily engaged, sinkable swallowtail help the cause.
—Drew Zieff, Outside Online, 18 Oct. 2022
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After blowing up a picture of the swallowtail and failing to find a match in any of her books or online, Kolterman called Roger Hammer, a wildflower expert and fellow butterfly guy.
—Jenny Staletovich, miamiherald, 22 June 2017
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The spicebush swallowtail is an impressive snake mimic.
—Discover Magazine, 29 June 2010
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The classic Dart shape remains the same: a broad, rockered nose; a wide, cambered midsection; and a relatively petite, tapered backseat notched with a sultry swallowtail.
—Drew Zieff, Outside Online, 28 Mar. 2022
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Various swallowtail and heliconid butterflies are some of roughly 30 species that will be on display.
—Bradley J. Fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, 9 Mar. 2018
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Painted ladies and swallowtail butterflies flitted about in the late afternoon sunshine, and a gentle, caressing breeze carried the blended fragrances of pine, cedar, sage and fresh oxygen.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Sep. 2019
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The caterpillar's other defenses include inflatable red horns that emit a terrible stink, like those of the spicetail swallowtail.
—Discover Magazine, 29 June 2010
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Each one resembles a specific poisonous monarch butterfly, which explains the species’ common name, the mocker swallowtail.
—Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 1 Feb. 2022
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Some swallowtails appear as early as March in southeast Wisconsin, report or check sightings online at wisconsinbutterflies.org.
—Jennifer Rude Klett, Journal Sentinel, 20 Apr. 2023
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Unlike the giant swallowtail, the gulf fritillary hatches a large number of caterpillars on its egg-laying site, and those caterpillars will often strip it of foliage during the breeding season.
—Calvin Finch, San Antonio Express-News, 4 June 2021
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Late summer brought a squadron of swallowtail butterflies that seemed to prefer feeding on the leathery leaves of ceanothus while nearby the busy skipper butterflies focused on clusters of wildflowers closer to the ground.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Nov. 2020
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Perhaps the same is true for other butterflies like morphos and pipevine swallowtails, which have independently evolved blue iridescence.
—Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 18 Sep. 2017
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'swallowtail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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