button

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌtn̩/, /ˈbʌtən/, [ˈbʌʔn̩]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌtən

From Middle English boton, botoun, from Old French boton (Modern French bouton), from Old French bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a Germanic language. More at butt.

Shirt button (sense 1)

Push button (sense 2)

The button of a violin (sense 19).

button (plural buttons)

1. A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener. [from the mid-13th c.]
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:

     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.

   April fastened the buttons of her overcoat to keep out the wind.

2. A mechanical device meant 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.

3. (graphical user interface) 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.

4. (US) 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.

5. (botany) A bud.
   • c. 1613–1614, Shakespeare, William; Fletcher, John, 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,

6. The head of an unexpanded mushroom.
7. (slang) The clitoris.
8. (curling) The center (bullseye) of the house.
9. (fencing) The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
10. (poker) A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
11. (poker) The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.
12. (archaic) A person who acts as a decoy.
13. A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement marking painted stripe.
14. (South Africa, slang) A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).
15. A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, such as a door.
16. A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.
17. A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
18. A small white blotch on a cat's coat.
19. (Britain, archaic) A unit of length equal to 1/12 of an inch.
20. The means for initiating a nuclear strike or similar cataclysmic occurrence.
21. (lutherie) In an instrument of the violin family, the near semi-circular shape extending from the top of the back plate of the instrument, meeting the heel of the neck.
22. (lutherie) Synonym of endbutton.
23. (lutherie, bowmaking) Synonym of adjuster.
24. 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.'

    • 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.

25. (comedy) 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!

    • 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.

    • 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.

For the senses 2 and 3, a button is often marked by a verb rather than a noun, and the button itself is called with the verb and button. For example, a button to start something is generally called start button.

• (graphical user interface): widget

• switch
• toggle
• trigger

From Middle English butonen, botonen, from the noun (see above).

button (third-person singular simple present buttons, present participle buttoning, simple past and past participle buttoned)

1. (transitive) To fasten with a button. [from the late 14th c.]
   • Charles Dickens

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

2. (intransitive) To be fastened by a button or buttons.

   The coat will not button.

• buttonable
• button-down
• buttoner
• button one's lip
• button up
• button it
• misbutton
• rebutton
• unbutton

• not but

button

1. Alternative form of botoun