Forms: 4 botoun, botone, (sense 2) bothum, -eum, -om, 5 botwn, -un, -onne, Sc. bwttowne, 6 boton, botton, buttoun, -one, 7–8 butten, 5– button. [a. OF. boton (mod.F. bouton) bud, knob, button; a common Romanic word = Pr., Sp. boton, Pg. botão, It. bottone:—late L. *bottōn-em, app. connected with late L. *bottare, buttare, to thrust, put forth (whence OF. boter, F. bouter, Sp. botar, It. bottare); the ultimate etymology is commonly supposed to be Teutonic; for conjectures see Diez, Scheler, Littré.
Sense 2 ‘bud’ appears to be the original sense in Romanic, but we have no instance of it in Eng. before 16th c., exc. as used (with peculiar spelling) in the Romaunt of the Rose.]
Generally. A small knob or stud attached to any object for use or ornament. spec.
1. A knob or stud of metal or other material sewn by a shank or neck to articles of dress, usually for the purpose of fastening one part of the dress to another by passing through a button-hole, but often merely for ornament: in process of use, the name has passed from the connotation of the shape to that of the purpose, and been extended to all appliances of the kind, a common type being a disc, quite flat, or slightly convex or concave, of metal, bone, glass, mother of pearl, paste, etc., perforated or otherwise adapted to be sewn on by its central part. (This specific application is now regarded as the primary sense, all the other meanings, whatever their historical origin, being understood as merely transf.)
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 220. On botounz of þe bryȝt grene brayden ful ryche.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 121. A ballok-knyf · with botones ouergylte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 45/2. Botwn, boto, fibula, nodulus.
1483. Cath. Angl., 50/1. A Button, fibula, nodulus, bulla.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. cci. [cxcvii.] 618. My booke … was … couered with crymson veluet, with ten botons of syluer and gylte.
1591. Florio, Sec. Fruites, 5. There Lacks I know not how many buttons. Set them on then.
1605. Shaks., Lear, V. iii. 309. Pray you vndo this Button.
1647. Husbandman’s Plea agst. Tithes, 75. It hath no buttons, nor hooks upon it.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., IX. 296. Fast with Golden Buttons held.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5435/4. Suits of Cloaths with Cloth Buttons. Ibid. (1725), No. 6402/2. A Wastcoat, with Glass Buttons set in Brass.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. V. lxix. 314. The new fashion of metal buttons.
1814. Scott, Wav., xli. My short green coat, with silver lace and silver buttons.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), II. lv. 198. A fine linen shirt with studs and sleeve buttons.
b. As a type of anything of very small value.
c. 1320. Sir Beues, 1004. Hauberk ne scheld ne actoun Ne vailede him nouȝt worþ a botoun.
1340. Ayenb., 86. Hi ne prayseþ þe wordle bote ane botoun.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., clxxviii. 159. To haue of me as moche helpe as the value of a botonne.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. Gal., II. 21. A button therfore for all worldely differences.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 146. They set not a button by his commaundements.
1672. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Rehearsal, III. ii. (Arb.), 79. I would not give a button for my Play.
1713. Guardian, No. 84 (1756), II. 13. Not … a button the worse for it.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., 27. He did not care a button for cock-fighting.
c. Playfully used transf.
1855. Househ. Words, XII. 258. Screwing up its red little button of a mouth.
d. Boy in buttons: a boy servant in livery, a ‘page.’ So To put into buttons: to make a page of. Cf. BUTTONS.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxxix. We don’t put the latter into buttons. Ibid. (1855), Newcomes, xi. Boys in buttons (pages who minister to female grace).
e. Phrases. To take by the button, etc.: to detain in conversation, to BUTTON-HOLE; also fig. † It is in his buttons: ? = he has fortune at his command, is sure to succeed. Dash my buttons: an exclamation indicating surprise and vexation (colloq.). To have a soul above buttons: said of persons who consider their actual employment unworthy of their talents (see quot. 1795).
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. ii. 71. ’Tis in his buttons, he will carry’t.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5459/2. The King was talking with him, and had hold of one of his Coat-Buttons.
1768. Goldsm., Good-n. Man, II. i. I take my friend by the button.
1795. G. Colman, Sylv. Daggerwood, i. (1808), 10. My father was an eminent Button-Maker…: but I had a soul above buttons…. I panted for a liberal profession.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, I. 48. His fingers upon every one’s button, and his mouth in every man’s ear.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, i. My father … had … a ‘soul above buttons.’
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, i. 2. Caught him by the button and detained him in consultation.
1846. Comic Jack Giant K., III. xiv. 18. ‘Dash my buttons,’ he cried, ‘I have lost my way!’
1864. Lowell, Biglow P., Wks. (1879), 314. Fame … is … privileged to take the world by the button.
f. Naut. Button and Loop: see quot.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 163. Button and Loop, a short piece of rope, having at one end a walnut knot, crowned, and at the other end an eye. It is used as a becket to confine ropes in.
g. spec. A knob on the top of a cap (in the case of a Chinese mandarin indicating by its material the degree of his rank).
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 233. On Fortunes Cap, we are not the very Button.
1834. Fraser’s Mag., X. 225. A mandarin of any considerable button.
2. A bud; also used of various other parts of plants of a similar shape, as the protuberant receptacle of the rose; the small round flower-head of some Compositæ; a small sort of fig; a small round seed-vessel.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1790. The roser, where that grewe The freysshe bothum so bright of hewe.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 101. The lowkyt buttonis on the gemmyt treis.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. i. 4. Alongst the braunches [of wormwood] groweth little yellow buttons.
1665–76. Ray, Flora, 26. The button under the rose being bigger than that of any other.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Misc. Tracts (1684), 70. The Buttons, or small sort of Figgs.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, III. 219. A Yellow Flower … succeeded with a Button, full of downy Seeds.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., I. s.v. Hop Gard., About August the Hop will begin to be in the bell or Button.
1852. Aird, in Blackw. Mag., LXXI. 237. The simple flowerets … open their infant buttons.
b. spec. The ‘head’ of a mushroom in its unexpanded state. Also applied dial. to a fossil.
1743. Pickering, in Phil. Trans., XLII. 598. The Head of the Mushroom … while it is, what is commonly called, a Button.
1839. Alford, in Life (1873), 11. Bright bronzed ammonites … other sparkling nondescripts, known as mushrooms and buttons.
1882. Jefferies, Bevis, II. xviii. 280. ‘Buttons,’ full grown mushrooms, and overgrown ketchup ones.
† c. transf. The knob or ‘bud’ which forms the beginning of a stag’s horn. Obs.
1575. Turberv., Venerie, 47. Hartes … beginne in … March and Apryll to thrust out their Buttones.
1623. Cockeram, s.v. Pollard, Butten is the first part in putting vp a Stagges head.
3. Used (chiefly in pl. form as the popular name of many different plants having button-like flowers or seed-vessels: see bachelor’s, beggar’s buttons under BACHELOR, BEGGAR. Barbary buttons (formerly also Button), Medicago scutellata. Gentlemen’s buttons, Scabiosa succisa (Britten and Holland). London buttons (see quots.).
1598. Florio, Baccara, an hearbe, whose roote is very sweete … called our ladies gloues, or London buttons.
1611. Cotgr., Gantelée, the hearbe called Fox-gloues, our Ladies gloues … and London buttons.
1665–76. Ray, Flora, 190. Snails or Button … The vessels … in some are like a Snail’s house … in some like small Buttons.
1711. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 386. Round Snails or Barbary Buttons.
4. transf. from 1. Applied to various productions of art resembling a button in shape or function; a knob, handle, catch; the knob or disc of an electric bell. spec. An oblong piece of wood or metal, turning on a screw fixed through its center, used to fasten doors, etc.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 396. The button of the [mouse-] trap.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 301. Covered with buttons or sliders to prevent dirt or dust falling into the holes.
1801. W. Felton, Carriages, Gloss., Buttons, nails or screws with large brass heads for the purpose of hitching on the straps.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 35. A number of handles or buttons … called stops.
1862. All Y. Round, VII. 381. There are buttons on window-sashes, and buttons on drawer handles.
1867. E. Yates, Forlorn Hope, iii. 28. Untwist the button on the door.
1871. Le Fanu, Checkm., I. xiv. 197. Mr. Davies turned the button of his old-fashioned window.
1880. J. Hawthorne, Ellice Quent., II. 261. By turning a button attached to the pipe that supplied the lights, they were at once extinguished.
1884. F. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 134. By means of the winding button the contrate wheel is turned to the right.
5. Any small rounded body; a knob, globule, disc, etc. Obs. exc. as in spec. senses following.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 127. The clots or buttons of bloud in the garden [of Gethsemane].
1684. R. Waller, Nat. Exper., 54. An hollow Button of Glass.
b. Chem. A globule of metal remaining in the cupel or crucible after fusion. [So Fr. bouton.]
1801. Chenevix, in Phil. Trans., XCI. 221. He … obtained a metallic button, which was found to be Copper.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 379. A button of pure tin will be found at the bottom of the crucible.
1854. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem. 509. The result … is a button of gold mixed with silver.
c. Anat. and Surg. In various applications.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. ii. § 4. ¶ 55. The Button of the Optic Nerve.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 321/1. At the parts of the gizzard opposite the musculi laterales two callous buttons are … formed.
1885. A. L. Ranney, in Harper’s Mag., March, 633/1. Cured by the removal of a button of bone from the skull over the seat of the pus.
d. pl. The testes of an animal.
e. A knob or disc fixed on the point of a fencing foil. [So in Fr.: bouton d’un fleuret.]
[1615. (see BUTTON v. 1 b).]
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Challenge of Knts. Err., Wks. (1711), 232. They would have most willingly taken the buttons off the foils.
1824. Carlyle, W. Meister (1874), I. II. xiv. 121. We can rub the buttons of them with a piece of chalk.
1868. Helps, Realmah, xv. (1876), 410. The buttons are on their foils.
f. Naut. (See quot.)
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 163. Buttons, small pieces of thick leather under the heads of nails that are driven through ropes.
6. An ornamental terminal knob, as on a handle, staff or scepter. spec. The knob of metal at the breech end of a piece of ordnance; also attrib. in button astragal, the raised molding encircling the button. [Fr. bouton.]
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2030/4. The Button of His Majesty’s Scepter.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), I iij. The breech … and it’s button, or cascabel.
1859. F. Griffiths, Artil. Man. Plate (1862), 50. S Button, a b Button Astragal.
7. A ring of leather through which the reins of the bridle pass, and which may be moved along so as to tighten up and restrain the horse’s head (see Littré). Also fig. cf. serrer le bouton à, ‘to restraine, . beare a hard hand ouer’ (Cotgr.).
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1594), 504. They must … let downe the button, and holde them hard in with the bridle.
8. (See quot.)
1850. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XI. I. 140. [The hay is] then made into button or small cock.
9. slang. A person who acts as a decoy; the accomplice of a thimble-rigger; a sham-buyer at an auction employed to bid and raise the price of articles.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 328. To … act as a button (a decoy), to purchase the first lot of goods put up.
1877. Besant & Rice, Son of Vulc., ix. The ‘Button,’ that is, the confederate who egged on the flats.
10. pl. The dung of sheep, etc. Hence in obs. phrase meaning ‘to be in great terror.’
1749. W. Ellis, Shepherd’s Guide, 148. This particular Sheep … so knit as to dung Buttons.
1778. Exmoor Scolding, Gloss., Buttons … sometimes us’d to express Sheeps Dung, and other Buttons of that kind.
1847–78. in Halliwell.
1598. Florio, 198. Il culo gli fa lappe, his taile makes buttons, his buttocks goes a twitter twatter.
1690. W. Walker, Idiom. Anglo-Lat., 78. It’s not for nought that your arse makes buttons.
1702. Mouse grown a Rat, 23. My Breech began to make Buttons; I dream’t of nothing but Impeachments, Attainders, Poll-Axes and Gibbets.
1808. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict., I. s.v. Button, His tail maketh buttons, valde trepidat.
† 11. A swelling, pimple [Fr. bouton]; cf. button-farcy (below). Buttons of Naples: ‘syphilitic buboes’ (Nares).
a. 1600[?]. in Nares, s.v., The Frenchmen at that siege got the buttons of Naples (as we terme them) which doth much annoy them at this day.
12. attrib. and Comb., as button-cap, -end, -farcy, -lac, -like adj, -maker, -making, -seller, -shank, -shaped adj., -stamper, -suit, -top, -tuft, -worker; button-ball, Platanus occidentalis (= button-wood); button-blank, a disc of metal, bone, or other material, to be formed into a button; button-board, pasteboard used for making button-molds; button-boot, a boot fastened with buttons; button-boy, a page (cf. 1 d); button-brace, a brace (see BRACE sb.2 6) used in the manufacture of buttons; button-bur (see quot.); button-bush, a North American shrub (Cephalanthus occidentalis), so called from its globular flower-heads; button-fish, the sea-urchin (Echinus); button-flower, the genus Gomphia of tropical trees or shrubs; button-hanger (see quot.); button-hook, a hook for pulling buttons (of boots and gloves) through the button-holes; † button-iron, an iron instrument with a knob at the end, used for cauterizing; button-mo(u)ld, a disc of wood or other material to be covered with cloth to form a button; button-mushroom, a young mushroom (= BUTTON 2 b); button-pointed a., having a button or knob at the point; button-regal, an obsolete reed stop on an organ; button-tree, the genus Conocarpus, ‘consisting of trees and shrubs from tropical America and Western Africa’ (Treas. Bot.); button-turn (see quot.); button-weed, the genera Spermacoce and Diodia of tropical Cinchonaceæ; also a local name for the Knapweed, Centaurea nigra; button-wood, an American name for the Occidental Plane-tree (Platanus occidentalis); also = button-bush; also = button-tree. See also BUTTON-HOLD, -HOLDER, BUTTON-HOLE, -HOLER.
1882. Julia D. Whiting, in Century Mag., XXII. March, 760/2. I stopped beneath the huge *button-ball at the gate.
1851. Illust. Lond. News, 16. Paper of any description, or *button board, millboard, etc.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 556. A circular disc of button-board suitable for forming the core of a button.
1883. Daily News, 14 Feb., 3/4. A long overcoat, *button boots, and cloth cap.
1877. Miss Broughton, Joan, xii. (1881), 120. The *button-boy never would answer her bell.
1634. T. Johnson, Merc. Bot., *Button Bur, Xanthium Strumarium.
1880. R. C. Robinson, in Scribner’s Mag., Feb., 510/1. Some lodged … in thickets of *button-bushes.
1606. T. Whetenhall, Disc. Abuses Ch. of Christ, 162. Som [weare] round cappes, som hattes, som *button cappes.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 279. A hole … made with the *button end of your drawing Iron.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat. (1706), v. 97. Commonly divided into these kinds; the *Button or Knotted Farcy, the Running Farcy, the Water Farcy, and the Pocky Farcy.
1740. Humphreys, La Pluche’s Nature Displ., xxii. 148. Sea-Urchins or *Button-Fishes.
1801. Felton, Carriages, Gloss., *Button-hangers, small ornamental tassels, which are placed on the fringe.
1870. Miss Bridgman, R. Lynne, II. v. 116. Tweezers, *button-hooks, and corkscrews.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 285. With a *button iron of an inch about, burn at each end a hole.
1883. A. G. F. Eliot James, in Cassell’s Fam. Mag., CVII. 686/2. Lac is exported almost exclusively in the manufactured state as dye, shell-lac, and *button-lac.
1874. Wyville Thomson, in Gd. Words, 747. *Button-like heads of yellow flowers.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 181. A *Button-maker of Amsterdam.
1863. Reader, 21 Feb., 188. The prodigal … marries the daughter of a deceased buttonmaker.
1687. Royal Proclam., in Lond. Gaz., No. 2297/1. The Trade of *Button-making.
1621. Hist. T. Thumbe, in Halliwell’s Shaks. (1850), VI. 192. The wheeles [of Tom Thumb’s coach] were made of foure *button-mouldes.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Early Less., II. Harry & L. A large wafer … and a wooden button mould of the same size.
1865. Cornh. Mag., XII. 627. Produced like *button-mushrooms in a hot-bed.
1885. H. M. Newhall, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 280/1. The upper is found to consist, as in the case of a button boot, of a ‘vamp’ … a large and small ‘quarter’ … and a *button piece to fasten the shoe around the foot.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 183/1. A *button-pointed bistoury.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 84. The obsolete registers; bear’s pipe, and Apple, or *button-regal, were stopped reed-registers.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2220/4. Mr. Edward Miller, *Button-seller.
1862. All Y. Round, VII. 378. Down upon his knees grubbing for buttons and *button-shanks.
1880. L. Wingfield, In her Maj. Keeping, II. I. xii. 51. It don’t matter to me a buttonshank.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 1213/1. *Button-shaped, dilated suckers.
1883. Birmingham Daily Post, 11 Oct., 3/2. *Button-stamper, for Brace and Shell Work.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxxvii. Tummus’s *button-suit was worn.
1840. Blackw. Mag., XLVIII. 305. A result which … nobody would think worth a decent-looking *button-top.
1725. Sloane, Jamaica, II. 18. *Button Tree. This tree … grows near the sea-side … among the mangroves.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 159. Button-tree or Button-wood. These trees … grow luxuriantly in all the low sandy bays and marshes.
1884. F. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 37. [A] *Button Turn [is] a brass block pivotted in the index arm and covering the curb-pin.
1878. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., *Button Weed, Centaurea nigra, L.—Suss.
1698. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XX. 401. Lignum Fibularium (i. e.) *Buttonwood nostratibus dicta.
1837. Fraser’s Mag., 686. The cool shade of some spreading buttonwood-tree.
1852. Hawthorne, Blithedale Rom., xvii. Besieging the button-wood tree.
1883. R. Adams, Jr., Century Mag., Aug., 547/2. The long lane, shaded by buttonwoods.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. iv. 50. [It] would find a ready sale among the button-workers of England.
b. attrib. with qualifying numeral; having (so many) buttons, as in ten-button gloves.
1884. Howells, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 117/1. What if he should bring a ten-button instead of an eight!
