The Collaborative International Dictionary
Button \But"ton\, n. [OE. boton, botoun, F. bouton button, bud, prop. something pushing out, fr. bouter to push. See Butt an end.]
A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
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.
A bud; a germ of a plant.
--Shak.A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door.
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A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion. Button hook, a hook for catching a button and drawing it through a buttonhole, as in buttoning boots and gloves. Button shell (Zo["o]l.), a small, univalve marine shell of the genus Rotella. Button snakeroot. (Bot.)
The American composite genus Liatris, having rounded buttonlike heads of flowers.
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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.
Usage examples of "button hook".
Picking up a button hook, she strained her arms to reach the back.
I unfastened my skirt and folded it, then sat at the little table with the wavy mirror I used for dressing, make-up, and ablutions, and picked up my button hook.
Shaking inside her frontier, multibutton, impossible-to-fasten boots (until Malcolm, shaking with silent laughter, handed her a button hook and explained its use) Margo recalled her formidable but lonely grandfather, a man who'd stepped through a gate to rescue her, not knowing if he'd survive the trip to the other side.
He took from his pocket a button hook and bent it so as to make a pick, and after a little experimenting succeeded in turning the lock.
These are almost gone now, I hear, the way of the Edsel, the klepsydra and the button hook, shot down and punctured by the safety pill, which makes for larger mammaries, too, so who complains?
Sometimes hed start with a twist of wire, a few batteries, and a button hook, and before he finished, he might contrive a new type of refrigerating unit.
Sometimes he'd start with a twist of wire, a few batteries, and a button hook, and before he finished, he might contrive a new type of refrigerating unit.