button
English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbʌt.ən/, [ˈbʌtʰ.ən] ~ [ˈbʌtʰ.n̩], [ˈbʌt̚.n̩]Category:English 2-syllable words#BUTTONCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BUTTON
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#BUTTONAudio (US): (file) - (t-glottalization) IPA(key): /ˈbʌʔ.ən/, [ˈbʌʔ.ən] ~ [ˈbʌʔ.n̩]Category:English 2-syllable words#BUTTONCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BUTTON
- (General Australian, New Zealand, General South African) IPA(key): /ˈbɐt.ən/, [ˈbɐtʰ.ən]Category:English 2-syllable words#BUTTONCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BUTTON
- (Philippines) IPA(key): /ˈbɐt.on/Category:English 2-syllable words#BUTTONCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BUTTON
- (Singapore) IPA(key): /ˈbə.tən/Category:English 2-syllable words#BUTTONCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BUTTON
- (Indic) IPA(key): /bəˈʈən/Category:English 2-syllable words#BUTTONCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BUTTON
- Rhymes: -ʌtənCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌtən#BUTTONCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌtən/2 syllables#BUTTON
- Hyphenation: but‧ton
Etymology 1
From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#BUTTONCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#BUTTON boton, botoun, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#BUTTON boton (Modern French bouton), from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#BUTTON bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Germanic languages#BUTTON language. Doublet of bouton, Biden, and beatCategory:English doublets#BUTTON. More at butt.
Noun
button (plural buttons)Category:English lemmas#BUTTONCategory:English nouns#BUTTONCategory:English countable nouns#BUTTONCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BUTTONCategory:Pages with entries#BUTTONCategory:Pages with 2 entries#BUTTON
- (clothingCategory:en:Clothing#BUTTON) A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener. [from mid-13th c.]
- 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:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- 1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 88:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- April fastened the buttons of her overcoat to keep out the wind.Category:English terms with usage examples#BUTTON
- 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.Category:English terms with usage examples#BUTTON
- (graphical user interfaceCategory:en:Graphical user interface#BUTTON) 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.Category:English terms with usage examples#BUTTON
- (USCategory:American English#BUTTON) 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.Category:English terms with usage examples#BUTTON
- (botanyCategory:en:Botany#BUTTON) A bud.
- c. 1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen, act 3, scene 1, lines 4–6:
- O queen Emilia, / Fresher than May, sweeter / Than her gold buttons on the boughs,Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- The calyx of an orange.
- 1969, Federal Register, volume 34, numbers 125-134, page 11315:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- The head of an unexpanded mushroom.
- (slangCategory:English slang#BUTTON) The clitoris.
- (curlingCategory:en:Curling#BUTTON) The center (bullseye) of the house.
- (fencingCategory:en:Fencing#BUTTON) The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
- (pokerCategory:en:Poker#BUTTON) A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
- (pokerCategory:en:Poker#BUTTON) The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.
- (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BUTTON) A person who acts as a decoy.
- A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement-marking painted stripe.
- (aviationCategory:en:Aviation#BUTTON) The end of a runway.
- 1984, Synopses of Aircraft Accidents: Civil Aircraft in Canada, page 42:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- 1999, Les Morrison, Of Luck and War, page 69:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- (South AfricaCategory:South African English#BUTTON, slangCategory:English slang#BUTTON) A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).
- A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, such as a door.
- A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.
- A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
- A small white blotch on a cat's coat.
- (UKCategory:British English#BUTTON, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BUTTON) A unit of length equal to 1⁄12 inch.
- (generally with the) The means for initiating a nuclear strike or similar cataclysmic occurrence.
- 1984, “Fugazi”, in Fish (lyrics), Fugazi, performed by Marillion:
- Pandora's box of holocausts gracefully cruising satellite infested heavens, waiting, the season of the button, the penultimate migration, radioactive perfumes for the fashionably, for the terminally, insane.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:
- It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a testCategory:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- (glassblowingCategory:en:Glassblowing#BUTTON) The oblate spheroidal mass of glass attaching a stem to either its bowl or foot.
- (lutherieCategory:en:Lutherie#BUTTON) 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.
- (lutherieCategory:en:Lutherie#BUTTON) Synonym of endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument.
- (lutherieCategory:en:Lutherie#BUTTON, bowmaking) Synonym of adjuster.
- The least amount of care or interest; a whit or jot.
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- '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.'Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- 1922, Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy:
- As to that I did not care a button, but I had wanted to hear about Betty, and now her name was barely mentioned.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- (televisionCategory:en:Television#BUTTON) The punchy or suspenseful line of dialogue that concludes a scene.
- Synonym: blow
- 2006, David Kukoff, Vault Guide to Television Writing Careers, page 77:
- 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:Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
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.
- (comedyCategory:en:Comedy#BUTTON) The final joke at the end of a comedic act (such as a sketch, set, or scene).
- 2002 November 8, Jean Ann Wright, “Animation Comedy and Gag Writing”, in Animation World Network:
- Scenes usually go out on a laugh line, a stinger or a button. End your script with a twist!Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- 2014 June 18, Daniel Schindel, “3 Comedy Sketches that Changed Key and Peele's Lives”, in Los Angeles Magazine:
- With our show, one thing we wanted to do was give our best effort to always put a button on the scene.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- 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:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- (slangCategory:English slang#BUTTON) A button man; a professional assassin.
- 1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)
- 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.
- 1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)
- The final segment of a rattlesnake's rattle.
- 1936, Laurence Monroe Klauber, A Statistical Study of the Rattlesnakes, page 26:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- (datedCategory:English dated terms#BUTTON, Southern USCategory:Southern US English#BUTTON) A clove (of garlic).
- (zoologyCategory:en:Zoology#BUTTON) Pedicle; the attachment point for antlers in cervids.
Usage notes
- For senses 2 and 3, a button is often marked by a verb rather than a noun, and the button itself is named with the verb followed by button. For example, a button to start something is generally called a start button.
Hypernyms
- (graphical user interface): widget
Hyponyms
Derived terms
- 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
- 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
- buttonhole
- button hole, button-hole
- 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
- buttonquail
- button-quail
- button quail
- button scurvy
- button seal
- button smuggler
- button snakeroot (Liatris spicataCategory:Entries using missing taxonomic name (genus)#Liatris%20spicata)
- button spider
- button squash
- button stick
- button-up
- button up one's lip
- buttonweed
- button willow
- 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
- endbutton
- end-button
- end button
- face button
- fire button
- fussbutton
- hamburger button
- happy button
- high button shoe
- hit the button
- hit the pause button
- hold by the button
- hot button
- hot-button
- hug 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
Descendants
Translations
Category:Entries with translation boxes#BUTTON
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
Etymology 2
From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#BUTTONCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#BUTTON butonen, botonen, from the noun (see above).
Verb
button (third-person singular simple present buttons, present participle buttoning, simple past and past participle buttoned)Category:English lemmas#BUTTONCategory:English verbs#BUTTONCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BUTTONCategory:Pages with entries#BUTTONCategory:Pages with 2 entries#BUTTON
- (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BUTTON) To fasten with a button. [from late 14th c.]
- 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 50, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:
- He was a tall, fat, long-bodied man, buttoned up to the throat in a tight green coat.Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
- (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BUTTON) To be fastened by a button or buttons.
- The coat will not button.Category:English terms with usage examples#BUTTON
- (Can we clean up(+) this sense?)Category:Requests for cleanup in English entries#BUTTON (informalCategory:English informal terms#BUTTON) To stop talking.
Derived terms
Translations
Category:Entries with translation boxes#BUTTON
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Further reading
Anagrams
Category:en:Buttons#BUTTONCategory:en:Fasteners#BUTTONCategory:en:Genitalia#BUTTONCategory:en:Units of measure#BUTTONMiddle English
Noun
buttonCategory:Middle English alternative forms#BUTTONCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#BUTTONCategory:Pages with entries#BUTTONCategory:Pages with 2 entries#BUTTON
- alternative form of botoun
