Definition of: button

(but′n) noun
1. A knob or disk, as of bone or metal, which, when forced through a narrow opening, or buttonhole, fastens one part of a garment to another.
2. Anything resembling a button, as an emblem of membership, usually worn in the lapel, a political emblem on a celluloid disk, etc.
3. A pivoted fastener for a door, window, etc.
4. A knob or protuberance, as for operating an electric bell, at the end of a foil, etc.
5. plural Brit. Colloq. A boy in attendance; a page: so called from the buttons on his uniform.
6. Metall. A small globular or disklike mass of metal found in a crucible after fusion.
7. Bot. a A bud or other like protuberance on a plant, b The small round flower head of some composite plants. c A small seed vessel, d The head of an immature mushroom.
8. Zool. a The bud that forms at the initial stage of a stag's horns, b The small round knob at the end of the rattles of a rattlesnake.
9. U.S. A guessing game.
10. Slang The point of the jaw.
11. plural Slang Wits: Some of his buttons are missing.
—v.t.
1. To fasten with or as with a button or buttons.
2. To provide with buttons.
—v.i.
3. To admit of being buttoned.
4. To bud or form heads, as a cauliflower. [<OF boton button, bud]
—but′ton·er noun
—but′ton·like′ adjective