button

See also: Button

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

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.

Shirt button (sense 1)
Push button (sense 2)
Buttons on a GUI (sense 3)
Badge worn on clothes, fixed with a pin (sense 4)
The button of a violin (sense 24).

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

  1. (clothingCategory:en:Clothing#BUTTON) A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener. [from mid-13th c.]
    April fastened the buttons of her overcoat to keep out the wind.
    Category:English terms with usage examples#BUTTON
  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.
    Category:English terms with usage examples#BUTTON
  3. (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
  4. (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
  5. (botanyCategory:en:Botany#BUTTON) A bud.
  6. 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
  7. The head of an unexpanded mushroom.
  8. (slangCategory:English slang#BUTTON) The clitoris.
  9. (curlingCategory:en:Curling#BUTTON) The center (bullseye) of the house.
  10. (fencingCategory:en:Fencing#BUTTON) The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
  11. (pokerCategory:en:Poker#BUTTON) A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
  12. (pokerCategory:en:Poker#BUTTON) The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.
  13. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BUTTON) A person who acts as a decoy.
  14. A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement-marking painted stripe.
  15. (aviationCategory:en:Aviation#BUTTON) The end of a runway.
  16. (South AfricaCategory:South African English#BUTTON, slangCategory:English slang#BUTTON) A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).
  17. A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, such as a door.
  18. A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.
  19. A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
  20. A small white blotch on a cat's coat.
  21. (UKCategory:British English#BUTTON, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BUTTON) A unit of length equal to 112 inch.
  22. (generally with the) The means for initiating a nuclear strike or similar cataclysmic occurrence.
  23. (glassblowingCategory:en:Glassblowing#BUTTON) The oblate spheroidal mass of glass attaching a stem to either its bowl or foot.
  24. (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.
  25. (lutherieCategory:en:Lutherie#BUTTON) Synonym of endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument.
  26. (lutherieCategory:en:Lutherie#BUTTON, bowmaking) Synonym of adjuster.
  27. The least amount of care or interest; a whit or jot.
  28. (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:
      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.
      Category:English terms with quotations#BUTTON
      Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
  29. (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
  30. (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.
  31. 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
  32. (datedCategory:English dated terms#BUTTON, Southern USCategory:Southern US English#BUTTON) A clove (of garlic).
  33. (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
Descendants
Translations
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

  1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BUTTON) To fasten with a button. [from late 14th c.]
  2. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BUTTON) To be fastened by a button or buttons.
  3. (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

Further reading

Anagrams

Category:en:Buttons#BUTTONCategory:en:Fasteners#BUTTONCategory:en:Genitalia#BUTTONCategory:en:Units of measure#BUTTON

Middle 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

  1. alternative form of botoun
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