butterfly kiss

English

Noun

butterfly kiss (plural butterfly kisses)

1. Fluttering one's eyelashes against someone's skin.
   • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely:

     She worked her eyelashes and made butterfly kisses on my cheeks.

   • 2003, Jennifer J. Rombalski, A Personal Journey in Understanding Physical Touch as a Nursing Intervention, Journal of Holistic Nursing, March 2003, vol. 21, no. 1, (page 80)

     One of these was the butterfly kiss, given by fluttering the eyelashes against the skin of the recipient.

2. A very light kiss.
   • 2005, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Turing: A Novel about Computation, page 6:

     Alexandros kisses her goodbye, a butterfly kiss on the lips, Aloé kisses her the same way. Beautiful child, Ethel thinks. Goodbye, Alexandros.

   • 2009, Ivey Nance, There's Trouble Brewing, page 5:

     Then he felt a butterfly kiss settle upon his cheek.

Translations

Very light kiss.

• French: baiser papillon (fr) m