Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to be quiet, to stop talking; thus keep one’s lip(s) buttoned (up), to keep quiet.

1836		Chester Chron 30 Dec. 4/1: A Yankee malcontent [...] If you don’t sashay across, button your lip, and go home quietly, you and I will have to promenade all round, and swing corners into the watch house .
1858		W. Carelton Black Baronet 247: Misther Gray, I’ll thank you to button your lip, if you plaise [...] let daicent Mrs. Mulroony tell her own story.
1868		N&Q Ser. 4 I 603: At school it was thought quite an accomplishment in the young gentlemen who were fast enough of tongue to be able to silence a talkative comrade with the phrase ‘button your lip’ .
1876		Public Ledger (Memphis, TN) 7 Dec. 1/3: ‘Oh button up your lip,’ said the candidate.
1881		Pulaski Citizen (TN) 28 Apr. 2/4: Be quiet Scibbler, and button up your lips.
1888		Western Kansas World 16 June 1/6: ‘Oh, go button up your lip,’ drawled jacob.
1906		Pensacola Jrnl 15 Nov. 5/3: Now mind your manners and keep your lips buttoned.
1920		Charlevoix Co. Herald (East Jordan, MI) 30 July 3/4: these college boys had taught me to say ‘Button up your face’.
1927		(con. 1914–18) L. Nason Three Lights from a Match 187: Button your mouth, ignorance, till I get through talkin’.
1928		J.P. McEvoy Showgirl 55: Aw, go button your nose!
1930		E.H. Lavine Third Degree (1931) 239: Button up yer lip, or I’ll button it fer yer.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 330: button up your face, lip, or trap—‘Shut up.’.
1934		R. Sale ‘A Nose for News’ in Goulart (1967) 197: Button your lip, Lyons!
1935		S. Kingsley Dead End Act I: Kin yuh still keep yer lips buttoned up?
1935		R. Chandler ‘Nevada Gas’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 161: I’d rather take a beating and keep my chin buttoned.
1935		W. Coburn Law Rides the Range 111: Go button your mouth, big boy.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 53: Pay, and I keep my lip buttoned.
1939		R.L. Bellem ‘Kill That Headline’ in Romantic Detective Feb. 🌐 Button your kisser, babe!
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 105: Keep that Polack puss buttoned before I take a notion t’ beat it blue.
1943		Sun. Post 25 July 8/5: Button Your Flap —A terse naval way of saying ‘Be quiet’.
1947		S.J. Perelman Westward Ha! 121: ‘Button your lip!’ snapped the guide.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 50: [He] buttoned his trap in an old understanding.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 40: button up your face To stop talking; to be quiet.
1952		H. McCoy Corruption City 49: Keep your lip buttoned about this.
1953		K. Amis letter 26 May in Leader (2000) 322: Keep your old mouth buttoned about this if you will.
1954		(con. 1940s) T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 23: Now why don’t you button your trap and give Sally a hand.
1954		J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 196: Get it orf yer chest or else button yer bloody flap.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 158: Button your mouth. Now get up!
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 100: If yo’ don’t shurrup, and button yer great gob.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 64: His pale yellow eyes looked wildcat crazy. But he kept his lip buttoned.
1964		R. Abrahams Deep Down In The Jungle 47: Sucking ass is out of style, button your lipper, suck my dick awhile.
1966		C. Wood Fill the Stage With Happy Hours (1967) Act III: Hey hey – button your lip.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 45: Button it up! Silence! No talking!
1970		E. Thompson A Garden of Sand (1981) 197: He’ll break your neck if you don’t button your lip, the boy thought.
1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 53: ‘Button it, ya tramp, ye’ he screamed at me.
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 315: You keep your yap buttoned and listen.
1983		S. May No Exceptions in Best Radio Plays (1984) 117: Sharon, button it. You can talk to your boyfriend at break.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 296: If I was you [...] I’d button my lip.
1998		M. Newall ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: Gawayne buttoned itte, notte wysheing to saye nuthinne.
1999		Indep. Rev. 26 Aug. 5: He never learned to button his lip for long enough to survive a job interview.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 24: Button your gabber Shut up.
2000		I. McDowall A Study in Death 266: He’d as good as told her to button it when she’d started to rant about wrongful arrest.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 154: ‘You never whistled?’ ‘Nah. You told me button it.’.
2004		A. Kleinzahler Cutty, One Rock (2005) 42: Hey, scumbag, button it!
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 810: Mum Juno was moaning about feeling sick... Psycho Carl told her to button it.

2. to make someone keep quiet.

1953

R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 295: ‘What a talkative lad he is,’ Ohls said, ‘when he doesn’t have three shysters with him to button his lip.’.