button

To fasten with a button.

Noun

  1. A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener.
    • I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the...
    • Rather should it be said that these ladies wore dress of military style, since there was nothing uniform about their outfits, one being in powder-blue with silver buttons and a forage-cap, the other in tan with gold...
    • April fastened the buttons of her overcoat to keep out the wind.
  2. A mechanical device designed to be pressed with a finger in order to open or close an electric circuit or to activate a mechanism.
    • Pat pushed the button marked "shred" on the blender.
  3. An on-screen control that can be selected as an activator of an attached function.
    • Click the button that looks like a house to return to your browser's home page.
  4. A badge worn on clothes, fixed with a pin through the fabric.
    • The politician wore a bright yellow button with the slogan "Vote Smart" emblazoned on it.
  5. A bud.
    • O queen Emilia, / Fresher than May, sweeter / Than her gold buttons on the boughs, - c. 1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen, act 3, scene 1, lines 4–6:
  6. The calyx of an orange.
    • Not well healed, or aggregating more than a circle 14 inch in diameter on a 200 size orange. More than a few adjacent to the "button" at the stem end or more than 6 scattered on other portions of the fruit. - 1969,...
  7. The head of an unexpanded mushroom.
  8. The clitoris.
  9. The center (bullseye) of the house.
  10. The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
  11. A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
  12. The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.

Origin

From Middle English boton, botoun, from Old French boton (Modern French bouton), from Old French bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a Germanic language. Doublet of bouton, Biden, and beat. More at butt.

Forms

buttons btn

Hypernyms

widget

Hyponyms

bachelor's button belly button billy buttons eject button fire button hot button merese panic button power button radio button red button shirt-button shoulder button snooze button start button stay-button tummy button

Related

switch toggle trigger

Derived

bachelor's button bachelors button Barbara's buttons bebuttoned beg button beggar's buttons bell button belly-button belly button bellybutton belly button ring big red button billy buttons blow my buttons blue button boss button boy in buttons brass button bright as a button bright as a new button button accordion buttonball button bar button-basher

Verb

  1. To fasten with a button.
    • He was a tall, fat, long-bodied man, buttoned up to the throat in a tight green coat. - 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 50, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall,...
  2. To be fastened by a button or buttons.
    • The coat will not button.
  3. To stop talking.

Origin

From Middle English butonen, botonen, from the noun (see above).

Forms

buttons buttoning buttoned btn

Derived

buttonable button-down buttoner button it button one's lip button through button up misbutton rebutton unbutton