*button*

(Med.) A chronic contagious affection of the skin, prevalent in the tropics. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

(Bot.) A plant with flowers shaped like buttons; especially, several species of Ranunculus, and the cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) and globe amaranth (Gomphrena). [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Bachelor's buttons, a name given to several flowers “from their similitude to the jagged cloathe buttons, anciently worne in this kingdom, ” according to Johnson's Gerarde, p. 472 (1633); but by other writers ascribed to “a habit of country fellows to carry them in their pockets to divine their success with their sweethearts.” Dr. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

, n. The depression in the middle of the abdomen in humans left as a residue of the umbilical cord; the umbilicus; the navel{ 1 }. [ PJC ]

{ }. [ Named after the town Biskara, in Algeria. ] (Med.) Same as Aleppo boil. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ OE. boton, botoun, F. bouton button, bud, prop. something pushing out, fr. bouter to push. See Butt an end. ] 1. A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A catch, of various forms and materials, used to fasten together the different parts of dress, by being attached to one part, and passing through a slit, called a buttonhole, in the other; -- used also for ornament. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A bud; a germ of a plant. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion. [ 1913 Webster ]

Button hook, a hook for catching a button and drawing it through a buttonhole, as in buttoning boots and gloves. --
Button shell (Zool.), a small, univalve marine shell of the genus Rotella. --
Button snakeroot. (Bot.) (a) The American composite genus Liatris, having rounded buttonlike heads of flowers. (b) An American umbelliferous plant with rigid, narrow leaves, and flowers in dense heads. --
Button tree (Bot.), a genus of trees (Conocarpus), furnishing durable timber, mostly natives of the West Indies. --
To hold by the button, to detain in conversation to weariness; to bore; to buttonhole. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Buttoned p. pr. & vb. n. Buttoning ] [ OE. botonen, OF. botoner, F. boutonner. See Button, n. ] 1. To fasten with a button or buttons; to inclose or make secure with buttons; -- often followed by up. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was a tall, fat, long-bodied man, buttoned up to the throat in a tight green coat. Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To dress or clothe. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be fastened by a button or buttons; as, the coat will not button. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) See Buttonwood. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A shrub (Cephalanthus occidentalis) growing by the waterside; -- so called from its globular head of flowers. See Capitulum. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. furnished with buttons or something buttonlike. Opposite of unbuttoned. [ Narrower terms: botonee, botonnee; button-down; closed ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. conservatively formal and businesslike in dress and manner.
Syn. -- button-down, conservative. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a colorful character in the buttoned-down, dull-gray world of business. Newsweek

adj. 1. taciturn. Opposite of voluble. [ British colloquial ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. conservative in professional manner; as, employers are looking for buttoned-up types. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The hole or loop in which a button is caught. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To hold at the button or buttonhole; to detain in conversation to weariness; to bore; as, he buttonholed me a quarter of an hour. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A disk of bone, wood, or other material, which is made into a button by covering it with cloth. [ Written also buttonmould. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Fossil buttonmolds, joints of encrinites. See Encrinite. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A boy servant, or page, -- in allusion to the buttons on his livery. [ Colloq. ] Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The name of several plants of the genera Spermacoce and Diodia, of the Madder family. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The Platanus occidentalis, or American plane tree, a large tree, producing rough balls, from which it is named; -- called also buttonball tree, and, in some parts of the United States, sycamore. The California buttonwood is Platanus racemosa. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Ornamented with a large number of buttons. “The buttony boy.” Thackeray. “My coat so blue and buttony.” W. S. Gilbert. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Elec.) A simple device, resembling a button in form, so arranged that pushing it closes an electric circuit, as of an electric bell; -- called also button. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]