Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Buttonhole
But′ton-holeˊ
,Noun.
The hole or loop in which a button is caught.
But′ton-holeˊ
,Verb.
T.
To hold at the button or buttonhole; to detain in conversation to weariness; to bore;
as, he
. buttonholed
me a quarter of an hourDefinition 2024
buttonhole
buttonhole
English
Noun
buttonhole (plural buttonholes)
- A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
- (chiefly Britain) a flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration
Synonyms
- (flower worn in the buttonhole for decoration): boutonniere
Translations
hole for a button
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flower worn in the buttonhole for decoration
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Verb
buttonhole (third-person singular simple present buttonholes, present participle buttonholing, simple past and past participle buttonholed)
- To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.
- Here they are, the brainless few we had been raised to pity and fear, the Stone Age oafs and the seething runts and the ominous, swaggering weightlifters, buttonholing kids like me out on Chancellor Avenue and telling us to keep our baseball bats at the ready in case we were called in the night to take to the streets [...] — Philip Roth, "The Plot Against America" (2004)
- http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004291.html