buttonhole
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: medicine
sciences
surgery
Etymology: Originally buttonhold (“a loop of string to hold a button down”), but changed by folk etymology by influence of hole, By surface analysis, button + hole.
Inflected forms:
form: buttonholes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: button-hole
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: button hole
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: buttonholes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: buttonholing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: buttonholed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: buttonholed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: button-hole
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: button hole
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
pos: noun
gloss: A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.
pos: noun
tags: UK
gloss: A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.
pos: noun
tags: UK
attributive
gloss: A small slot-like cut or incision, made for example by an accident with the scalpel.
pos: noun
examples: The usual cause of conjunctival buttonholes is penetration of the tissue by the tip of a sharp instrument […]
gloss: The mouth, nose or eyes of a tiny appearance.
pos: noun
gloss: vagina, coin slot.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: The butthole (anus).
pos: noun
gloss: To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
transitive
examples: He backed Mr. Lykins against an iron fence, buttonholed him, fastened him with his eye, like the ancient mariner, and proceeded to unfold his narrative as placidly and peacefully as if we were all stretched comfortably in a blossomy summer meadow instead of being persecuted by a wintry midnight tempest: […]
Hiro and Chuck grab the closest thing they can find to a corner table. Hiro buttonholes a waiter and surreptitiously orders a pitcher of Pub Special, mixed half and half with nonalcoholic beer.
He buttonholed people on the street and related details of his child’s miraculous progress without even prefacing his remarks with the hypocritical but polite: “I know everyone thinks their own child is smart but—”
Here they are, the brainless few we had been raised to pity and fear, the Stone Age oafs and the seething runts and the ominous, swaggering weightlifters, buttonholing kids like me out on Chancellor Avenue and telling us to keep our baseball bats at the ready in case we were called in the night to take to the streets [...]
gloss: To cut one or more buttonholes (in).
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
gloss: To sew by buttonhole stitch.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To make a small slot-like incision in (intentionally or unintentionally).
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
gloss: To apply a flowery formation in.
pos: verb
tags: rare
transitive
examples: What tree of more pulchritude and symmetricalness could you nominate for roadside, street and public park planting than the graceful linden? We should possess more of the spirit which predominates in this direction in the crowning gem of America’s constitutionality—the City of Washington, D. C. ‘‘Unter den Lindens’’ would not only be found in Germany, but in all the large cities of our grand and glorious United States. Washington has her Unter den Linden in the Massachussetts^([sic]) avenue. Her North and South Capital streets are buttonholed with the stately tulips, which are fit emblems to thus adorn the meridian of the United States.
gloss: To attain buttonhole-like formations on cutting.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
intransitive
rare
examples: Furze cut it himself after his dinner, with great care and concentrated solemnity, finding the loaf rather too new and the knife too blunt for the carving of slices of ideal thinness. The beastly things would buttonhole!
Related words: buttonhook
Derived words: buttonholer
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: петлица
roman: petlica
lang: Danish
word: knaphulsblomst
lang: Dutch
word: boutonnière
lang: Finnish
word: rintakukka
lang: French
word: boutonnière
lang: German
word: Boutonniere
lang: Icelandic
word: blóm í hnappagat
lang: Icelandic
word: blóm í barm
lang: Macedonian
word: илик
roman: ilik
lang: Macedonian
word: илика
roman: ilika
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: knapphullsblomst
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: knappholsblomst
lang: Polish
word: butonierka
lang: Russian
word: бутонье́рка
roman: butonʹjérka
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ѝлик
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ѝлика
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: за̑мчица
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ко̏в
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: о̏мча
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ìlik
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ìlika
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: zȃmčica
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: kȍv
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ȍmča
lang: Swedish
word: knapphålsblomma