buttonhole
/ˈbʌtənˌhoʊl/
buttonhole noun: a hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
Noun
buttonhole (plural buttonholes)
- A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
- A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.
- Synonyms:
- boutonniere
- So shaped that it can be worn on a buttonhole or it is similar to a buttonhole.
- A small slotlike cut or incision, made for example by an accident with the scalpel.
- The usual cause of conjunctival buttonholes is penetration of the tissue by the tip of a sharp instrument […]2011, George L. Spaeth, Helen Danesh-Meyer, Ivan Goldberg, Ophthalmic Surgery: Principles and Practice E-Book, page 220
- The mouth, nose or eyes of a tiny appearance.
- The vagina, a coin slot.
- Synonyms:
- axe wound, bearded clam, beaver, berk, bonne bouche, box, bun, bush, cavern, clunge
- The butthole (anus).
Verb
buttonhole (third-person singular simple present buttonholes, present participle buttonholing, simple past and past participle buttonholed)
- To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.
- He backed Mr. Lykins against an iron fence, buttonholed him, fastened him with his eye, like the ancient mariner, and proceeded to unfold his narrative as placidly and peacefully as if we were all stretched comfortably in a blossomy summer meadow instead of being persecuted by a wintry midnight...1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XXVI, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 265
- He buttonholed people on the street and related details of his child’s miraculous progress without even prefacing his remarks with the hypocritical but polite: “I know everyone thinks their own child is smart but—”1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter L, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published June 1944, →OCLC, part V, page 890
- To cut one or more buttonholes (in).
- To sew by buttonhole stitch.
- To make a small slot-like incision in (intentionally or unintentionally).
- To apply a flowery formation in.
- What tree of more pulchritude and symmetricalness could you nominate for roadside, street and public park planting than the graceful linden? We should possess more of the spirit which predominates in this direction in the crowning gem of America’s constitutionality—the City of Washington, D. C....1871 December 17, Henry K. Staley, “Forestry and Apiculture”, in The American Bee Journal, volume 28, number 25, pages 781b of 779a–782b
- To attain buttonhole-like formations on cutting.
- Furze cut it himself after his dinner, with great care and concentrated solemnity, finding the loaf rather too new and the knife too blunt for the carving of slices of ideal thinness. The beastly things would buttonhole!1927, Warwick Deeping, Doomsday, page 77
buttonhole meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
buttonhole in Hindi
- hole for a button
- काज kāj
buttonhole in Tamil
- குமிழ்மாட்டி செருகும் துளை, மலர்க்கொத்து, பொத்தான் செருகும் துளைபோடு, ஓரத்தைப் பாதுகாக்கத்தக்க தையல் போடு, பேச்சின் போது பிடித்து நிறுத்திவை
buttonhole in Urdu
- buttonhole
- کاج kāj
buttonhole in Malayalam
- accost, call to, speak to
- പിടിച്ചുനിർത്തി സംസാരിക്കുക, തടഞ്ഞുനിർത്തി സംസാരിക്കുക, അടുത്തുകൂടുക, അഭിവാദ്യം ചെയ്യുക, ഒരാളെ സമീപിച്ച് സംഭാഷണം തുടങ്ങുക, അടുത്തുചെന്നു സംഭാഷണം തുടങ്ങുക
More languagesFewer languages
- buttonhole in Kannada
- ಕಾಜ
- buttonhole in Punjabi
- ਕਾਜ kāj
- buttonhole in Arabic
- عُرْوَة ʕurwa
- buttonhole in Persian
- جا دکمه jâ-dokme, انگیله angile
- buttonhole in Thai
- รังดุม rang-dum
Examples of buttonhole in a sentence
- Hiro buttonholes a waiter and surreptitiously orders a pitcher of Pub Special, mixed half and half with nonalcoholic beer.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 295:
- Her North and South Capital streets are buttonholed with the stately tulips, which are fit emblems to thus adorn the meridian of the United States.1871 December 17, Henry K. Staley, “Forestry and Apiculture”, in The American Bee Journal, volume 28, number 25, pages 781b of 779a–782b:
Synonyms of buttonhole
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of buttonhole
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | buttonholes |
| alternative form | button-hole |
| alternative form | button hole |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | buttonholes |
| present participle | buttonholing |
| past participle | buttonholed |
| past | buttonholed |
Origin of buttonhole
Originally buttonhold (“a loop of string to hold a button down”), but changed by folk etymology by influence of hole. By surface analysis, button + hole.
Words formed from buttonhole
Phrases with buttonhole
Questions about buttonhole
- What does buttonhole mean?
- Buttonhole means a hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
- What is buttonhole in Hindi?
- Buttonhole in Hindi is काज (kāj). See Buttonhole meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use buttonhole in a sentence?
- Hiro buttonholes a waiter and surreptitiously orders a pitcher of Pub Special, mixed half and half with nonalcoholic beer.
- What part of speech is buttonhole?
- Buttonhole can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce buttonhole?
- Buttonhole is pronounced /ˈbʌtənˌhoʊl/ (US).
- What is the plural of buttonhole?
- The plural of buttonhole is buttonholes.
Words near buttonhole in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: buttonhole (page history and authors); buttonhole (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); کاج (Urdu) (page history and authors); buttonhole (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); buttonhole (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-buttonhole.ogg.
Cite this entry: “buttonhole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/buttonhole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.