Word.ws English Dictionary

pushing someone's buttons

pushing someone's buttons is the present participle and gerund 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)

  1. (informal) 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

Questions about pushing someone's buttons

What is pushing someone's buttons the present participle and gerund of?
Pushing someone's buttons is the present participle and gerund of push someone's buttons.

Words near pushing someone's buttons in the dictionary

  1. pushing papers
  2. pushing past
  3. pushing rope
  4. pushing school
  5. pushing schools
  6. pushing someone's buttons
  7. pushing string uphill
  8. pushing the boat out
  9. pushing the edge of the envelope
  10. pushing the envelope
  11. pushing the limit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pushing 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.

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