button man

A contract killer; a professional assassin.

Noun

  1. A contract killer; a professional assassin.
    • I was called a "buffoon" in the paper of record, the New York Times, and the Washington Post described me fondly as "Clinton's gunsel," his button man - 2000, James Carville, Stickin': The Case for Loyalty, page 13:
    • "Twenty years ago, he was Little Pete Drago, a button man for the boys on Mulberry Street. He's probably got twenty notches on his piece - 2000, Stuart Woods, Worst Fears Realized, page 177:
    • But death is never symmetrical and tidy, and the button man had nothing to say. - 2005, Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936, page 44:

Forms

button men