Word.ws English Dictionary

button

Syllables: but·ton/ˈbʌʔən/UK/ˈbʌtən/

button noun: a knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener.

Noun

button (plural buttons)

  1. A knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener.
    • I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
    • Rather should it be said that these ladies wore dress of military style, since there was nothing uniform about their outfits, one being in powder-blue with silver buttons and a forage-cap, the other in tan with gold buttons and the dinkiest of red-peaked kepis.1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 88
  2. A mechanical device designed to be pressed with a finger in order to open or close an electric circuit or to activate a mechanism.
    • Pat pushed the button marked "shred" on the blender.
  3. An on-screen control that can be selected as an activator of an attached function.
    • Click the button that looks like a house to return to your browser's home page.
  4. (US) A badge worn on clothes, fixed with a pin through the fabric.
    • The politician wore a bright yellow button with the slogan "Vote Smart" emblazoned on it.
  5. A bud.
    • O queen Emilia, / Fresher than May, sweeter / Than her gold buttons on the boughs,c. 1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen, act 3, scene 1, lines 4–6
  6. The calyx of an orange.
    • Not well healed, or aggregating more than a circle 14 inch in diameter on a 200 size orange. More than a few adjacent to the "button" at the stem end or more than 6 scattered on other portions of the fruit.1969, Federal Register, volume 34, numbers 125-134, page 11315
  7. The head of an unexpanded mushroom.
  8. (slang) The clitoris.
  9. The center (bullseye) of the house.
  10. The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
  11. A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
  12. The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.
Show 21 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (archaic) A person who acts as a decoy.
  2. A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement-marking painted stripe.
  3. The end of a runway.
    • In attempting to touch down on the button of the runway, he misjudged his altitude and struck a pile of rocks short of the runway. The right wheel was torn off and the gear leg bent backwards.1984, Synopses of Aircraft Accidents: Civil Aircraft in Canada, page 42
    • The second and slightly higher aircraft on the approach showed no reaction to this barrage of pyrotechnics and continued blissfully down toward the button of the runway.1999, Les Morrison, Of Luck and War, page 69
  4. (South Africa, slang) A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).
  5. A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, such as a door.
  6. A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.
  7. A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
  8. A small white blotch on a cat's coat.
  9. (UK, archaic) A unit of length equal to ¹⁄₁₂ inch.
  10. (generally with the) The means for initiating a nuclear strike or similar cataclysmic occurrence.
    • Pandora's box of holocausts gracefully cruising satellite infested heavens, waiting, the season of the button, the penultimate migration, radioactive perfumes for the fashionably, for the terminally, insane.1984, “Fugazi”, in Fish (lyrics), Fugazi, performed by Marillion
    • It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a test1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!
  11. The oblate spheroidal mass of glass attaching a stem to either its bowl or foot.
  12. In an instrument of the violin family, the near-semicircular shape extending from the top of the back plate of the instrument, meeting the heel of the neck.
  13. Synonym of endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument.
    Synonyms:
    endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument
  14. Synonym of adjuster.
    Synonyms:
    adjuster
  15. The least amount of care or interest; a whit or jot.
    • 'She has heard from us this morning,' said Mr. Gamble, grinning on his watch, 'and she knows all by this time, and 'tisn't a button to her.'1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
    • As to that I did not care a button, but I had wanted to hear about Betty, and now her name was barely mentioned.1922, Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy
  16. The punchy or suspenseful line of dialogue that concludes a scene.
    • One thing you definitely don't want to do is write past the button. For example, a scene's natural button might run something like this:
      TONY: That kind of talk is exactly what I'm talking about.
      Whereas an example of writing past the button would sound something like this:
      TONY: That kind of talk...2006, David Kukoff, Vault Guide to Television Writing Careers, page 77
    Synonyms:
    blow
  17. The final joke at the end of a comedic act (such as a sketch, set, or scene).
    • Scenes usually go out on a laugh line, a stinger or a button. End your script with a twist!2002 November 8, Jean Ann Wright, “Animation Comedy and Gag Writing”, in Animation World Network
    • With our show, one thing we wanted to do was give our best effort to always put a button on the scene.2014 June 18, Daniel Schindel, “3 Comedy Sketches that Changed Key and Peele's Lives”, in Los Angeles Magazine
  18. (slang) A button man; a professional assassin.
    • FREDO: Mikey, why would they ever hit poor old Frankie Five-Angels? I loved that ole sonuvabitch. I remember when he was just a 'button,' when we were kids.1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)
  19. The final segment of a rattlesnake's rattle.
    • Hardly a rattler is ever reported in the newspapers unless it is stated to have had "blank rattles and a button". But here button usually means the terminal lobe of the last rattle, even though the string may not be complete, the true button and additional rattles having been lost.1936, Laurence Monroe Klauber, A Statistical Study of the Rattlesnakes, page 26
  20. (Southern US, dated) A clove (of garlic).
  21. Pedicle; the attachment point for antlers in cervids.

Verb

button (third-person singular simple present buttons, present participle buttoning, simple past and past participle buttoned)

  1. (transitive) To fasten with a button.
    • He was a tall, fat, long-bodied man, buttoned up to the throat in a tight green coat.1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 50, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC
  2. (intransitive) To be fastened by a button or buttons.
    • The coat will not button.
  3. (informal) To stop talking.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Button

Button (countable and uncountable, plural Buttons)

  1. (countable) A surname originating as an occupation for a maker or seller of buttons.
  2. A township in Ford County, Illinois, United States.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Button

Button

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Buton (“Indonesian island”).

button meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

button in Hindi

knob or small disc serving as a fastener
बटन baṭan
a mechanical device meant to be pressed with a finger
बटन baṭan

button in Tamil

knob or small disc serving as a fastener
பொத்தான் pottāṉ
a mechanical device meant to be pressed with a finger
விசை vicai, பட்டன் paṭṭaṉ
in computer software, an on-screen control that can be selected
பொத்தான் pottāṉ, பட்டன் paṭṭaṉ
botany: a bud
மொட்டு moṭṭu

button in Marathi

knob or small disc serving as a fastener
कळ kaḷ, बटण baṭaṇ
a mechanical device meant to be pressed with a finger
कळ kaḷ, बटण baṭaṇ
a badge worn on clothes
गुंडी guṇḍī, बटण baṭaṇ

button in Urdu

knob or small disc serving as a fastener
بَٹَن baṭan
a mechanical device meant to be pressed with a finger
بَٹَن baṭan
More languagesFewer languages
button in Bengali
বোতাম bōtam
button in Telugu
గుండీ guṇḍī, బొత్తాము bottāmu
button in Kannada
ಗುಂಡಿಯು, ಬಟನ್, ಗುಂಡಿ
button in Punjabi
ਬਟਨ, ਇੱਕ ਬਟਨ
button in Gujarati
બટન baṭan
button in Odia
ବଟନ୍, ବୋତାମ, ବଟନ
button in Assamese
বুটাম butam, গুনঠি gunothi, গুদাম gudam
button in Nepali
बटन, बटनलाई
button in Pashto
تکمه tokmá
button in Tagalog
butones, pindutan, boton
button in Arabic
زِرّ zirr
button in Malay
butang
button in Indonesian
kancing, butang, tombol, knop
button in Thai
ดุม dum, กระดุม grà-dum, ปุ่ม bpùm, ปุ่มกด bpùm-gòt
button in Vietnamese
cúc, nút, khuy, nút bấm
button in Myanmar
ကြယ်သီး kraisi:, နှိပ်ကြယ်သီး hnipkraisi:

Examples of button in a sentence

  • April fastened the buttons of her overcoat to keep out the wind.
  • Endings — or outs, or buttons as writers call them — are notoriously difficult to nail.2016 July 12, Jessica Goldstein, “How to best end a comedy sketch? It’s hard to go wrong with gruesome death”, in The Washington Post:

All 40 example sentences with button

Synonyms of button

Forms of button

Noun
pluralbuttons
alternative formbtn
Verb
third-person singular presentbuttons
present participlebuttoning
past participlebuttoned
pastbuttoned
Proper noun
pluralButtons

Past tense of button: buttoned

Plural of button: buttons

Origin of button

From Middle English boton, botoun, from Old French boton (Modern French bouton), from Old French bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a Germanic language. Doublet of bouton, Biden, and beat. More at butt.

From Middle English butonen, botonen, from the noun (see above).

Words formed from button

Phrases with button

96 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with button

Questions about button

What does button mean?
Button means a knob or disc that is passed through a loop or (buttonhole), serving as a fastener.
What is button in Hindi?
Button in Hindi is बटन (baṭan). See Button meaning in Hindi.
How do you use button in a sentence?
April fastened the buttons of her overcoat to keep out the wind.
What part of speech is button?
Button can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce button?
Button is pronounced /ˈbʌtən/ (UK).
What is the plural of button?
The plural of button is buttons.

Words near button in the dictionary

  1. buttockless
  2. buttocklike
  3. buttocks
  4. buttocky
  5. buttom
  6. button
  7. button accordion
  8. button accordions
  9. button bar
  10. button bars
  11. button basher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: button (page history and authors); Button (page history and authors); button (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); button (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); button (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); button (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-button.ogg.

Cite this entry: “button.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/button. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.