Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Button

But′ton (bŭt′t'n), n. [OE. boton, botoun, F. bouton button, bud, prop. something pushing out, fr. bouter to push. See Butt an end.] 1. A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.

2. A catch, of various forms and materials, used to fasten together the different parts of dress, by being attached to one part, and passing through a slit, called a buttonhole, in the other; — used also for ornament.

3. A bud; a germ of a plant. Shak.

4. A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door.

5. A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.

Button hook, a hook for catching a button and drawing it through a buttonhole, as in buttoning boots and gloves. — Button shell (Zoöl.), a small, univalve marine shell of the genus Rotella. — Button snakeroot. (Bot.) (a) The American composite genus Liatris, having rounded buttonlike heads of flowers. (b) An American umbelliferous plant with rigid, narrow leaves, and flowers in dense heads. — Button tree (Bot.), a genus of trees (Conocarpus), furnishing durable timber, mostly natives of the West Indies. — To hold by the button, to detain in conversation to weariness; to bore; to buttonhole.

But′ton, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Buttoned; p. pr. & vb. n. Buttoning.] [OE. botonen, OF. botoner, F. boutonner. See Button, n.] 1. To fasten with a button or buttons; to inclose or make secure with buttons; — often followed by up.

He was a tall, fat, long-bodied man, buttoned up to the throat in a tight green coat. Dickens.

2. To dress or clothe. [Obs.] Shak.

But′ton, v. i. To be fastened by a button or buttons; as, the coat will not button.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.