Buttonhole

Quick meaning: Buttonhole is a noun meaning A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.

Meaning

A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.

More Meanings

1. (surgery) A small slot-like cut or incision, made for example by an accident with the scalpel.
2. The mouth, nose or eyes of a tiny appearance.
3. (lightly vulgar) The butthole (anus).
4. (transitive, colloquial) To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.
5. (ambitransitive) To cut one or more buttonholes (in).
6. (chiefly British) A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.
7. (obsolete) vagina, coin slot.

Example Sentences

The usual cause of conjunctival buttonholes is penetration of the tissue by the tip of a sharp instrument […]

Hiro and Chuck grab the closest thing they can find to a corner table. Hiro buttonholes a waiter and surreptitiously orders a pitcher of Pub Special, mixed half and half with nonalcoholic beer.

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—”

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!

Word Forms

• buttonholes
• button-hole
• button hole
• buttonholing
• buttonholed

Synonyms for buttonhole

Depending on context, synonyms include boutonniere, beaver, berk, box, bun, bush.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include button hole, lobby, stitch, slit, buttoner, buttonhook.

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