▪ I. button-hole, n.
(ˈbʌt(ə)nhəʊl)
1. a. The hole or slit through which a button passes.
| 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Covrtier (1577) M iij a, Thou shalt one daye be the botton, and the haulter shal be the buttonhole. 1580 Baret Alv. B 1608 A button hole, ansula. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2094/4 One sad-coloured Cloth Sute with Gold Buttons and Button-holes. 1791 Boswell Johnson III. 339 With an ink-horn and pen in his button-hole. |
b. colloq. phrase. to take one down a button-hole or a button-hole lower: to humiliate or take the conceit out of him. (Cf. to take one down a peg.)
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 706 Master, let me take you a button hole lower. 1593 Peele Edw. I, On my word, I'll take you down a button-hole. 1655 Heywood Fort. by Land, &c. ii. ii. Wks. 1874 VI. 387 You are taken a button-hole lower. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom iv. 21 Better mind yerselves, or I'll take ye down a button-hole lower. |
c. spec. one in the lapel of a coat.
| 1842 Knickerbocker XIX. 44 A bud and two leaves..at his buttonhole. 1847 Dickens Dombey xxxi, The Major..wears a whole geranium in his button-hole. 1863 Kingsley Water-bab. 5 With a..flower in his button-hole. 1929 Edington Studio Murder Myst. xvii, The white gardenia in his buttonhole. |
2. a. transf. An opening like a button-hole.
| 1599 Nashe Lent. Stuffe (1871) 74 The raveled button⁓holes of her blear eyes. 1862 Temple Bar Mag. IV. 419 The little red button-hole of a mouth. |
b. Surg. A small straight opening in an organ or part.
| 1884 B. Bramwell Dis. Heart & Thoracic Aorta v. 478 In cases of this description, the orifice, when seen from above, looks like a narrow slit, hence the term button-hole mitral which has been applied to it. 1907 Practitioner Oct. 526 Without making a ‘button-hole’ through the mucoperichondrium. 1946 H. T. Hyman Integrated Pract. Med. III. xix. cxxxvii. 2971 Metacarpal shaft driven through joint capsule between flexor tendons (button-hole dislocation). |
3. colloq. Short for button-hole flower, bouquet.
| 1879 E. H. Marshall in My Sunday Friend Mar. 19 The little girl who sold him a button-hole. 1881 M. C. Hay Missing III. 239 A dainty little buttonhole of tinted leaves. 1883 in Harper's Mag. Nov. 840/2 A button-hole of hyacinths. |
4. attrib., as in button gimp, button-hole hand, button-hole cutter, button-hole flower, button-hole scissors, button-hole stitch, button-hole twist; button-hole globe, light, an electric bulb to be fastened in one's button-hole as a reading light.
| 1852 Blackw. Mag. LXXI. 341 Button-hole eyes and upright eyelids. 1869 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. 1868 289 Button-hole twist is the same, with a tighter twist. 1873 Young Englishwoman Mar. 147/2 Cutting-out scissors, small scissors, and button-hole scissors. 1875 Chamb. Jrnl. 67 Traffic in button-hole flowers. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Button⁓hole Cutter. 1884 Harper's Mag. 286/1 A wine-glass containing a button-hole bouquet. 1887 Mag. Art Mar. 152 These threads were worked over with close button-hole stitch. 1890 Daily News 27 Jan. 3/1 The apparatus is about the same as that of the buttonhole light, only that instead of a buttonhole globe at the end of a thread there is a fine, minute drill. 1899 in A. Adburgham Shops & Shopping (1964) xxii. 261 Button hole gimp and twist. 1908 Daily Chron. 13 June 9/6 Tailoring.—Wanted button-hole hand for coats and vests. 1964 McCall's Sewing v. 62/1 Buttonhole scissors, a handy item if you make a lot of garments with machine-made buttonholes, these are designed to cut open buttonholes accurately. |
▪ II. ˈbutton-hole, v.
[f. prec. n.: in sense 2 app. altered from button-hold. which it has almost superseded.]
1. a. intr. To sew button-holes. b. trans. To sew with button-hole stitch.
| 1828 [see button-holing below]. 1868 Holme Lee B. Godfrey xli. 224 Whether button-holing and embroidering or not. 1882 Cassell's Fam. Mag. xcvii. 44 Penwipers..button-holed round with silk. |
c. To make button-hole openings in.
| 1908 Practitioner Oct. 522 The hand is kept in that position..by long strips of adhesive plaster..; these are button⁓holed over the knuckles to adapt themselves to them. |
d. Surg. To make (esp. accidentally) a button-hole incision in.
| 1907 Practitioner Oct. 530 It may seem impossible to strip off the muco-chondrium without buttonholing it. 1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) xxvii. 423 The dissection is made by sharp-pointed scissors in the sub⁓conjunctival tissue..care being taken to avoid button⁓holing the flap. |
2. trans. = button-hold.
| 1862 All Y. Round VII. 381 The man who is button⁓holed, or held..and must listen to half an hour's harangue about nothing interesting. 1868 H. Kingsley Mathilde II. 140 He went about button-holing and boring every one. 1951 ‘A. Garve’ Murder in Moscow iii. 48 Jeff..had buttonholed a Russian who spoke a few words of English. 1953 Encounter Oct. 58/2 Scientists were free to..publish their findings, talk about them to colleagues (or to anyone else they could buttonhole). |
Hence ˈbutton-ˌholing vbl. n.: also button-holeing, and as ppl. a.
| 1828 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. (1863) 7 The..mysteries of stitching and button-holing. 1862 in Sperber & Trittschuh Amer. Pol. Terms (1962) 68/2 Quarreling, fighting, button-holeing. 1873 Daily News 7 Nov. 5/5 They were subjected to a good deal of button⁓holing. 1883 Standard 6 Nov. 2/2 After buttonholing, the uniform goes into the hands of the ‘finishers’. 1894 Athenæum 10 Feb. 176/1 The reticence of Mr. Maartens..contrasts vividly enough with the buttonholing familiarity of his English model. 1909 H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay ii. iii. 179 That alluring, button-holeing..style of newspaper advertisement. 1963 Times 13 June 15/5 His book is a button⁓holing chronicle of daring theft and boudoir hanky-panky. |