Word.ws English Dictionary

button up

button up verb: to fasten with a button or buttons. Also the alternative form of button up one's lip.

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To fasten with a button or buttons.
    • Button up your shirt cuff. It has come undone.
  2. (intransitive) To fasten all the buttons on a coat, or similar item of clothing, to keep warm.
    • Button up well. It's freezing outside today.
  3. (ambitransitive) To conclude; to finalize; to put the finishing touches (on).
    • It's time to button up the meeting.
  4. (US, ergative, slang, transitive) To seal off (a military vehicle or facility).
    • Once buttoned up, NORAD's operation center can survive for more than 30 days without aid from the outside world.1996, Airman, volume 40, page 6
    • We fired at the tanks and caused them to "button up" and then we started shooting the infantry.1997, “Statement of S/Sgt. Alfred Sueflow, Company E, 253rd Infantry”, in Battle Between the Jagst and Kocher Rivers, 4-12 April 1945, page 136

Also used as

button up is also the alternative form of button up one's lip.

Forms of button up

third-person singular presentbuttons up
present participlebuttoning up
past participlebuttoned up
pastbuttoned up

Questions about button up

What does button up mean?
Button up means to fasten with a button or buttons.
What part of speech is button up?
Button up is a verb.
What is the past tense of button up?
The past tense of button up is buttoned up.

Words near button up in the dictionary

  1. button spider
  2. button spiders
  3. button squash
  4. button stick
  5. button through
  6. button up
  7. button up one's lip
  8. button willow
  9. button wrinklewort
  10. button wrinkleworts
  11. button-basher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: button up (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-button up.wav.

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