English
buttonhole
Noun

buttonhole (plural buttonholes)

  1. A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
  2. (chiefly, British) A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.
    Synonyms: boutonniere
  3. (medicine) A small slot-like cut or incision, made for example by an accident with the scalpel.
    • 2011, George L. Spaeth, ‎Helen Danesh-Meyer, ‎Ivan Goldberg, Ophthalmic Surgery: Principles and Practice E-Book (page 220)
      The usual cause of conjunctival buttonholes is penetration of the tissue by the tip of a sharp instrument […]
Translations Translations
  • Russian: бутонье́рка
Verb

buttonhole (buttonholes, present participle buttonholing; past and past participle buttonholed)

  1. To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.
    Synonyms: accost, waylay
    • 1880, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, Chapter 26,
      He backed Mr. Lykins against an iron fence, buttonholed him, fastened him with his eye, like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and proceeded to unfold his narrative as placidly and peacefully as if we were all stretched comfortably in a blossomy summer meadow instead of being persecuted by a wintry midnight tempest:
    • 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (novel), New York: Macmillan, Part 5, Chapter 50, p. 890,
      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—”
Translations

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Offline English dictionary