button

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A generally disk-shaped fastener used to join two parts of a garment by fitting through a buttonhole or loop.
2. n. Such an object used for decoration.
3. n. Any of various objects resembling a button, especially:
4. n. A push-button switch.
5. n. The blunt tip of a fencing foil.
6. n. A fused metal or glass globule.
7. n. Computer Science In graphical user interface systems, a well-defined area within the interface that is clicked to select a command.
8. n. Computer Science In a hypertext database, an icon that when selected allows a user to view a particular associated object.
9. n. Any of various knoblike structures of a plant or animal, especially:
10. n. An immature, unexpanded mushroom.
11. n. The tip of a rattlesnake's rattle.
12. n. A usually round flat badge that bears a design or printed information and is typically pinned to a garment: a campaign button.
13. n. Informal The end of the chin, regarded as the point of impact for a punch.
14. v. To fasten with buttons: buttoned his shirt; buttoned up her raincoat.
15. v. To decorate or furnish with buttons.
16. v. Informal To close (the lips or mouth): Button your lip.
17. v. To be or be capable of being fastened with buttons: The blouse buttons up the back.
18. button up To fasten one's clothing tightly, as against cold weather.
19. button up To close or seal securely: button up the cabin for winter.
20. button up To complete the final details of: "Publication is a couple of months off; they're just buttoning up paperback rights” ( Donald Dale Jackson).
21. idiom. on the button Exactly; precisely.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Any knob or ball fastened to another body; specifically, such an object used to secure together different parts of a garment, to one portion of which it is fastened in such a way that it can be passed through a slit (called a buttonhole) in another portion, or through a loop. Buttons are sometimes sewed to garments for ornament. They are made of metal, horn, wood, mother-of-pearl, etc., and were formerly common in very rich materials, especially during the eighteenth century, when the coats of gentlemen at the French court had buttons of gold and precious stones, pearl, enamel, and the like. Later buttons of diamonds or of paste imitating diamonds were worn, matching the buckles of the same period.
2. n. plural (used as a singular). A page: so called from the buttons, commonly gilt, which adorn his jacket.
3. n. A knob of gold, crystal, coral, ruby, or other precious stone, worn by Chinese officials, both civil and military, on the tops of their hats as a badge of rank; hence, the rank itself: as, a blue button. There are nine ranks, the first or highest being distinguished by a transparent red (or ruby) button; the second, by opaque red (coral); the third, by transparent blue (sapphire); the fourth, by opaque blue (lapis lazuli); the fifth, by transparent white (crystal); the sixth, by opaque white; the seventh, by plain gold; the eighth, by worked gold; and the ninth or lowest, by plain gold with the character for “old age” engraved on it in two places. A scholar who has passed the siu-tsai (or bachelor) examination is entitled to wear the last.
4. n. A knob or protuberance resembling a button. Specifically— The knob of metal which terminates the breech of most pieces of ordnance, and which affords a convenient bearing for the application of hand-spikes, breechings,etc.; a cascabel. [Eng.]
5. n. A bud of a plant.
6. n. A flat or elongated piece of wood or metal, turning on a nail or screw, used to fasten doors, windows, etc.
7. n. A small round mass of metal lying at the bottom of a crucible or cupel after fusion.
8. n. In an organ, a small round piece of leather which, when screwed on the tapped wire of a tracker, prevents it from jumping out of place.
9. n. A ring of leather through which the reins of a bridle pass, and which runs along the length of the reins.
10. n. In zoology: The terminal segment of the crepitaculum or rattle of a rattlesnake. See crepitaculum.
11. n. In entomology, a knob-like protuberance on the posterior extremity of the larvæ of certain butterflies, also called the anal button or cremaster. Sometimes there is a second one, called the preanal button.
12. n. plural A name given to young mushrooms, such as are used for pickling.
13. n. plural Sheep's dung: sometimes used for dung in general.
14. n. A small cake.
15. n. A person who acts as a decoy. Specifically— An auctioneer's accomplice who employs various devices to delude bidders so as to raise the price of articles sold, etc.
16. To attach a button or buttons to.
17. To fasten with a button or buttons; secure, or join the parts or edges of, with buttons: often followed by up: as, to button up a waistcoat.
18. To be capable of being buttoned.
19. n. A finger-knob or key on the concertina and some accordions.
20. n. In pathology, any small, rounded, circumscribed elevation on the cutaneous or mucous surface.
21. To bud or form imperfect heads, offsets, rosettes, tubers, or bulbs: for example, the cauliflower buttons when the head sends up imperfect and irregular glomerules, thus destroying the symmetry and solidity of the head.

Wiktionary

1. n. A mechanical device meant to be pressed with a finger in order to open or close an electric circuit or to activate a mechanism.
2. n. graphical user interface An on-screen control that can be selected as an activator of an attached function.
3. n. US A badge worn on clothes, fixed with a pin through the fabric.
4. n. botany A bud.
5. n. slang The clitoris.
6. n. curling The center (bullseye) of the house.
7. n. fencing The soft circular tip at the end of a foil.
8. n. poker A plastic disk used to represent the person in last position in a poker game; also dealer's button.
9. n. poker The player who is last to act after the flop, turn and river, who possesses the button.
10. n. A raised pavement marker to further indicate the presence of a pavement marking painted stripe.
11. n. South Africa, slang A methaqualone tablet (used as a recreational drug).
12. v. intransitive To be fastened by a button or buttons.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass.
2. n. 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. n. A bud; a germ of a plant.
4. n. A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door.
5. n. A globule of metal remaining on an assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion.
6. v. To fasten with a button or buttons; to inclose or make secure with buttons; -- often followed by up.
7. v. obsolete To dress or clothe.
8. v. To be fastened by a button or buttons.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. lie adjacent to another or share a boundary
2. v. provide with buttons
3. n. a female sexual organ homologous to the penis
4. n. a device that when pressed will release part of a mechanism
5. n. a round flat badge displaying information and suitable for pinning onto a garment
6. n. any artifact that resembles a button
7. n. any of various plant parts that resemble buttons
8. v. fasten with buttons
9. n. a round fastener sewn to shirts and coats etc to fit through buttonholes
10. n. an electrical switch operated by pressing