button pusher
button pusher noun: someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc.
Noun
button pusher (plural button pushers)
- Someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc.
- Near-synonyms: gadfly, goader, provocateur, provoker
- When you're dealing with Tom, you need to keep in mind that he can be a button pusher sometimes. Stay cool, and don't reinforce that behavior.
- Synonyms:
- gadfly, goader, provocateur, provoker
- A low-skilled or unskilled worker: someone from whom one can expect little or nothing more than rote pushing of buttons (not showing, for example, critical thinking, insight, or leadership).
- Bill has been working here for 4 years and is looking for ways to upskill. He says he doesn't want to be a button pusher forever.
Synonyms of button pusher
Forms of button pusher
| plural | button pushers |
|---|
Origin of button pusher
In the provoker sense, by a metaphor in which the recipient's emotions can be manipulated on command as if prompted by literal control buttons. Thus also tangentially comparable with a puppet master who is pulling the strings to manipulate puppets.
Questions about button pusher
- What does button pusher mean?
- Button pusher means someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc.
- What part of speech is button pusher?
- Button pusher is a noun.
- What is the plural of button pusher?
- The plural of button pusher is button pushers.
Words near button pusher in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: button pusher (page history and authors). 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:
Cite this entry: “button pusher.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/button_pusher. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.