[f. BUTTON sb. + HOLDER.]
1. One who takes hold of a man by a button of his coat, so as to detain him in conversation.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), I. i. While attending a button-holder to your gate.
a. 1850. Rossetti, Dante & Circle, I. (1874), 28. The buttonholders of learned Italy, who will not let one go on one’s way.
2. A case for holding buttons.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, 12. Are you quite sure you saw my mother-of-pearl button-holder on the work-table in my room?
