button

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 ]