bell button

Noun

bell button (plural bell buttons)

1. A small, round mechanical device which, when pressed, rings a bell to announce one's presence or call a servant, assistant, etc.
   • She hated the row of key-and-mail boxes on the wall, with the bell buttons above each apartment number. She hated the jangling of the hall telephone, the scurrying to answer, the prodding of whichever bell button would summon the tenant asked for by the caller.1921, B. M. Bower, chapter 2, in Sawtooth Ranch, London: Methuen
   • He pressed the bell-button set in the frame of a door marked 611. The door was opened immediately by a diminutive girl […]1931, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 1, in The Glass Key, New York: Knopf

   Synonyms:

   buzzer, doorbell

2. A button in the form of a jingle bell, used as a fastener or decoration on a piece of clothing.
   • […] the young warriors now frequently fasten bell-buttons, or pieces of tinkling brass to their maccaseenes, and to the outside of their boots, instead of the old turky-cock-spurs which they formerly used.1775, James Adair, The History of the American Indians, London: Edward and Charles Dilly, Chapter , Argument 17, p. 171
   • Now when a country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished reputation, and joins the great whale-fishery, you should see the comical things he does upon reaching the seaport. In bespeaking his sea-outfit, he orders bell-buttons to his waistcoats; straps to his canvas trowsers.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 6”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC