button
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbʌt.n̩/
ipa: [ˈbʌʔ.n̩]
ipa: [ˈbʌʔ.tən]
ipa: [ˈbʌʔ.tⁿn̩]
ipa: [ˈbʌt.n̩]
ipa: /bʌˈt̪ən̪/
ipa: /bʊˈt̪oːn̪/
ipa: /bɔˈt̪oːn̪/
ipa: /ˈbʌːʔtən/
rhymes: -ʌtən
Forms: form: buttons
Etymology: 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 Biden and beat. More at butt.
Senses: examples: text: 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 crest on his note-paper.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: 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 buttons and the dinkiest of red-peaked kepis.
ref: 1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 88:
text: April fastened the buttons of her overcoat to keep out the wind.
topics: business
clothing
fashion
lifestyle
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener.
examples: text: Pat pushed the button marked "shred" on the blender.
glosses: A mechanical device designed to be pressed with a finger in order to open or close an electric circuit or to activate a mechanism.
examples: text: Click the button that looks like a house to return to your browser's home page.
topics: computing
engineering
graphical-user-interface
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: An on-screen control that can be selected as an activator of an attached function.
examples: text: The politician wore a bright yellow button with the slogan "Vote Smart" emblazoned on it.
glosses: A badge worn on clothes, fixed with a pin through the fabric.
examples: text: O queen Emilia, / Fresher than May, sweeter / Than her gold buttons on the boughs,
ref: c. 1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen, act 3, scene 1, lines 4–6:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A bud.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1969, Federal Register, volume 34, numbers 125-134, page 11315:
glosses: The calyx of an orange.
glosses: The head of an unexpanded mushroom.
glosses: The clitoris.
topics: ball-games
curling
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The center (bullseye) of the house.
topics: fencing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.
glosses: A person who acts as a decoy.
glosses: A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement-marking painted stripe.
examples: text: In attempting to touch down on the button of the runway, he misjudged his altitude and struck a pile of rocks short of the runway. The right wheel was torn off and the gear leg bent backwards.
ref: 1984, Synopses of Aircraft Accidents: Civil Aircraft in Canada, page 42:
text: The second and slightly higher aircraft on the approach showed no reaction to this barrage of pyrotechnics and continued blissfully down toward the button of the runway.
ref: 1999, Les Morrison, Of Luck and War, page 69:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The end of a runway.
glosses: A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).
glosses: A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, such as a door.
glosses: A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.
glosses: A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
glosses: A small white blotch on a cat's coat.
glosses: A unit of length equal to ¹⁄₁₂ inch.
examples: text: It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a test
ref: 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:
qualifier: generally with the
glosses: The means for initiating a nuclear strike or similar cataclysmic occurrence.
topics: arts
crafts
glassblowing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: The oblate spheroidal mass of glass attaching a stem to either its bowl or foot.
topics: arts
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
lutherie
glosses: In an instrument of the violin family, the near-semicircular shape extending from the top of the back plate of the instrument, meeting the heel of the neck.
topics: arts
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
lutherie
glosses: Synonym of endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument.
synonyms: word: endbutton
word: part of a violin-family instrument
topics: arts
bowmaking
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
lutherie
glosses: Synonym of adjuster.
synonyms: word: adjuster
examples: text: 'She has heard from us this morning,' said Mr. Gamble, grinning on his watch, 'and she knows all by this time, and 'tisn't a button to her.'
ref: 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
text: As to that I did not care a button, but I had wanted to hear about Betty, and now her name was barely mentioned.
ref: 1922, Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy:
glosses: The least amount of care or interest; a whit or jot.
examples: text: One thing you definitely don't want to do is write past the button. For example, a scene's natural button might run something like this:
TONY: That kind of talk is exactly what I'm talking about.
Whereas an example of writing past the button would sound something like this:
TONY: That kind of talk is exactly what I'm talking about.
CARMELLA: Okay. 'Bye.
TONY: Bye.
ref: 2006, David Kukoff, Vault Guide to Television Writing Careers, page 77:
topics: broadcasting
media
television
synonyms: blow
glosses: The punchy or suspenseful line of dialogue that concludes a scene.
examples: text: Scenes usually go out on a laugh line, a stinger or a button. End your script with a twist!
ref: 2002 November 8, Jean Ann Wright, “Animation Comedy and Gag Writing”, in Animation World Network:
text: With our show, one thing we wanted to do was give our best effort to always put a button on the scene.
ref: 2014 June 18, Daniel Schindel, “3 Comedy Sketches that Changed Key and Peele's Lives”, in Los Angeles Magazine:
text: Is there a best way to end a comedy sketch? Endings — or outs, or buttons as writers call them — are notoriously difficult to nail. The ideal ending needs to be satisfying and surprising while staying true to the comedic game that preceded it.
ref: 2016 July 12, Jessica Goldstein, “How to best end a comedy sketch? It’s hard to go wrong with gruesome death”, in The Washington Post:
topics: comedy
entertainment
lifestyle
glosses: The final joke at the end of a comedic act (such as a sketch, set, or scene).
examples: text: FREDO: Mikey, why would they ever hit poor old Frankie Five-Angels? I loved that ole sonuvabitch. I remember when he was just a 'button,' when we were kids.
ref: 1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)
glosses: A button man; a professional assassin.
examples: text: Hardly a rattler is ever reported in the newspapers unless it is stated to have had "blank rattles and a button". But here button usually means the terminal lobe of the last rattle, even though the string may not be complete, the true button and additional rattles having been lost.
ref: 1936, Laurence Monroe Klauber, A Statistical Study of the Rattlesnakes, page 26:
glosses: The final segment of a rattlesnake's rattle.
glosses: A clove (of garlic).
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: Pedicle; the attachment point for antlers in cervids.
Hypernyms: topics: graphical-user-interface
computing
engineering
mathematics
sciences
physical-sciences
natural-sciences
word: 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
Derived terms: bachelor's button
bachelors button
Barbara's buttons
bebuttoned
beg button
beggar's buttons
bell button
bellybutton
belly-button
belly button
belly button ring
big red button
billy buttons
blue button
boss button
boy in buttons
bright as a button
bright as a new button
button accordion
buttonball
button bar
button basher
button-basher
buttonbush
button cactus
button cell
button day
button ear
buttonfront
button grass
button hole
button-hole
buttonhole
buttonhook
buttonize
buttonless
button lift
buttonlike
button lock
buttonmaker
buttonmaking
button man
button mangrove
button mash
button-masher
button masher
button-mashing
button mashing
buttonmould
button mushroom
button nose
buttonologist
buttonology
button-on
button plant
button punch
button pusher
button-pusher
button-quail
button quail
buttonquail
button scurvy
button seal
button smuggler
button snakeroot
button spider
button squash
button stick
button-up
button up one's lip
buttonweed
buttonwillow
buttonwood
button wrinklewort
buttony
buzz button
call button
campaign button
care a button
cheese button
chest button
chicken button
chicory button
collar-button
collar button
collar-button abscess
cough button
cute as a button
diatonic button accordion
disbutton
Dorset button
electric button
end-button
end button
endbutton
fire button
fussbutton
hamburger button
happy button
high button shoe
hit the button
hold by the button
hot-button
hot button
keybutton
love button
meow button
multibutton
multibuttoned
Murphy's button
neat as a button
nuclear button
on the button
option button
panic button
placebo button
prebutton
press button
press someone's buttons
push-button
push button
pushbutton
push someone's buttons
push the right buttons
Quaker buttons
radial button
radio button
reset button
sew buttons
sew buttons on your underwear
shirt-button
sleeve-button
snooze button
spin button
Start button
stay-button
Szechuan button
tang button
thistle button
tich button
tummy button
turn button
wild bachelor's button
wild bachelor's-button
Related terms: switch
toggle
trigger