The Collaborative International Dictionary
buttoned-down \buttoned-down\ adj. conservatively formal and businesslike in dress and manner.
Syn: button-down, conservative.
a colorful character in the buttoned-down,
dull-gray world of business.
--Newsweek
Wiktionary
a. (context idiomatic English) (alternative form of button-down English)
WordNet
adj. unimaginatively conventional; "a colorful character in the buttoned-down, dull-gray world of business"- Newsweek [syn: button-down, conservative]
Usage examples of "buttoned-down".
Two uniformed doormen, occasionally stamping their feet and beating their arms against the cold, guarded the entrance: both men, Reynolds could see, were armed with revolvers in buttoned-down holsters, and carried a baton or night-stick apiece.
Instead he'd seen a woman who looked so buttoned-down he'd been surprised that she'd spoken to him.
He lay and looked at the sky which had nothing but east wind in it and the four bullets were in the buttoned-down change pocket of his shorts.
He'd decided to wear a navy pin-striped suit, brilliant red silk tie and an oxford blue buttoned-down shirt.