Word.ws English Dictionary

buttoning one's lip

buttoning one's lip is the present participle and gerund of button one's lip.

Meaning of button one's lip

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To remain silent, especially in order to keep a secret or to avoid saying something inappropriate.
    • "Yes," put in Solomon. "I've been tipped off to this guy Mars, and you'd better tell him to button up his lip and not start anything."1910, Jim Nasium, "The Baseball League on the Styx," The Sunday Press (Pittsburgh), 15 May, p. 2 (retrieved 19 July 2010)

Questions about buttoning one's lip

What is buttoning one's lip the present participle and gerund of?
Buttoning one's lip is the present participle and gerund of button one's lip.

Words near buttoning one's lip in the dictionary

  1. buttonhook
  2. buttonhooked
  3. buttonhooking
  4. buttonhooks
  5. buttoning
  6. buttoning one's lip
  7. buttoning through
  8. buttoning up
  9. buttoning up one's lip
  10. buttonings
  11. buttonize

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: buttoning one's lip (page history and authors); button one's lip (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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