press someone's buttons
press someone's buttons is the alternative form of push someone's buttons.
Meaning of push someone's buttons
Verb
push someone's buttons (third-person singular simple present pushes someone's buttons, present participle pushing someone's buttons, simple past and past participle pushed someone's buttons)
- To do specific things to anger someone (or, less commonly, to sexually arouse or otherwise elicit a strong reaction from them), especially intentionally or maliciously.
- Near-synonyms: trigger, get on someone's nerves
- Synonyms:
- trigger, get on someone's nerves
Forms of press someone's buttons
| third-person singular present | presses someone's buttons |
|---|---|
| present participle | pressing someone's buttons |
| past participle | pressed someone's buttons |
| past | pressed someone's buttons |
Questions about press someone's buttons
- What is press someone's buttons the alternative form of?
- Press someone's buttons is the alternative form of push someone's buttons.
Words near press someone's buttons in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: press someone's buttons (page history and authors); push someone's buttons (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: “press someone's buttons.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/press_someone%27s_buttons. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.