Definition of chrysalides:
(n) :
The pupa of a butterfly or moth, particularly bare and hanging or girdled, as opposed to enclosed in a cocoon, in which metamorphosis takes place.
(n) :
The cocoon itself.
(v) :
To metamorphize; to transform.
(v) :
To form a chrysalis.
(n) :
(figurative) A limiting environment or situation.
(n) :
(astronomy) A former moon in Saturn, Solar System. A hypothetical former moon of Saturn, whose gravitational influence is proposed as the source of Saturn's inclination and near-resonance with Uranus, and whose destruction by gravitational disruption is proposed as the source of Saturn's rings.