Word.ws English Dictionary

shirt-button

shirt-button noun: a button for a shirt, usually a man's.

Noun

shirt-button (plural shirt-buttons)

  1. A button for a shirt, usually a man's.
    • […] though Mrs. Norris could fidget about the room, and disturb everybody in quest of two needlefuls of thread or a second-hand shirt button, in the midst of her nephew’s account of a shipwreck or an engagement, everybody else was attentive […]1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XXIV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
    • He had frequently restored to me sixpences and shillings carelessly dropped upon the floor, for I am apt to be very reckless in such shirt-button affairs [i.e., involving things of low value].1853, Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, in The Piazza Tales, New York: Dix, Edwards & Co, published 1856

Forms of shirt-button

pluralshirt-buttons
alternative formshirt button
alternative formshirtbutton

Questions about shirt-button

What does shirt-button mean?
Shirt-button means a button for a shirt, usually a man's.
What part of speech is shirt-button?
Shirt-button is a noun.
What is the plural of shirt-button?
The plural of shirt-button is shirt-buttons.

Words near shirt-button in the dictionary

  1. shirt lifters
  2. shirt sleeve
  3. shirt sleeves
  4. shirt waist
  5. shirt waists
  6. shirt-button
  7. shirt-buttons
  8. shirt-collar
  9. shirt-collars
  10. shirt-frill
  11. shirt-frills

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shirt-button (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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Cite this entry: “shirt-button.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shirt-button. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.