button, n.⁴ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

button n.⁴

(US Und.) the status of being in a US Mafia ‘family’; usu. as earn/get one’s button v., to be made a member of the Mafia.

1972		D. Pendleton Boston Blitz (1974) 137: They’d just better deliver, that’s all. I’m through playing button-button.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 7: Had one of them hard-water voices. They [i.e. US Mafiosi] all got them. Comes with the button.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 181: Tommy was going to be made. He was finally getting his button.
2003		H. Hill Good Fella’s Guide to N.Y. 163: To earn a ‘button’ was to become a made man, an untouchable.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 133: Frank had got his button for that night [...] They had a cheesy‘ceremony’ in the back of a car.

button man (n.) (also button, button guy)

(US) a lower echelon member of a Mafia family.

1969		M. Puzo Godfather 101: It was an important promotion, that to ‘button’ man, one not to be handed out lightly. The man had to be tough and he had to be smart.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 22: Pete says to this button-guy with him, ‘He’s a fuckin’ nigger’.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 35: The FBI file on Reilly’s desk read him as a middle-echelon button [...] reputed to have been ‘made’ in the early 1950s.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 191: And all we’re trying to do is stop the button men from hitting the mattresses.
1989		(con. 1930s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 188: You had to be a button guy, you had to kill three, four people and be somebody that they look up to.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 273: You wanna start fuckin playin the gangster, start callin on button men, been watchin too many fuckin pictures.
[2002		C. Stella Jimmy Bench-Press 19: There’s guys out there with buttons couldn’t make first team crossing guards].
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 97: He might [...] have done a few jobs as a freelance hit-man. [...] ‘Christ,’ I said. ‘A buttonman.’.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] Away from junkie bandleaders, dead button men, living button men.

half a button (n.)

(US Und.) a criminal who is on the fringe of full membership of the US Mafia; also attrib.

1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 12: Nino, he had half a button, cool head, he’d talk to you.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 157: Some half-a-button guy.