Green’s Dictionary of Slang

the finger used by a woman to masturbate herself or her partner.

2002

‘Top Ten “Top Ten” Lists’ York Little Theatre Pit 25 Jul. 🌐 1. Things Carols can do with her ‘Button Finger!’.

see separate entry.

penniless.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 166/2: since c. 1938.

a (hotel) page.

1863		Sydney Morn. Herald 3 Apr. 3/1: A Buttons or button boy is the same creature that by some termed a page; a small child, dressed in a dark coloured livery, the jacket of which is decorated [with] bright buttons .
1896		Akron Beacon Jrnl (OH) 5 Dec. 7/6: [She] disappeared into the kitchen, escorted by a reverent and remote train, maid, button boy, and the porter .
1901		Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly LI 561: There would be the office boy, the messenger boy, the door or button boy, the newsboy, the common street boy and several other varieties.
1901		K.D. Wiggin Penelope’s Irish Experiences (2008) 189: She calls our page ‘the Button Boy,’ and makes his life a burden to him.

a button thief.

1909

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues (rev. edn).

(orig. US black) a braggart or boaster, a loudmouth.

2000

(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 24: Button-buster A braggart or loudmouth.

see separate entry.

anyone who operates a console.

1983

Judge Dredd Nov. 5: I’m just a harmless button jock [HDAS].

(Aus.) a trick played on a naïve woman by a man, bent on intercourse, who removes a button from his coat and promises that it will serve adequately as a contraceptive pessary.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 167/1: since ca. 1915.

(UK Und.) the police.

1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 29: It was a few years before the Button Mob had started putting my description at all the race meetings. [Ibid.] 35: So many of the Button Mob were in court with their week-end’s haul of drunks and street-walkers.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 176: Button Mob. uniformed police officers, especially in large numbers, at a political demonstration for example.

house music.

2000

J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 13: You’d go to collect money, and they’d be dancing round the gaff, arms in the air, button music blasting out at maximum volume.

a state of solvency or profit.

1732		New Sporting Mag. Nov. 39/2: I recommend Mr Wilson to translate him [i.e. a horse named Argent] into plain English Silver, for horses of this genius are always best in Button Park.
1867		C. Waterton Home, Habits & Handiwork 205: Come into the public-house, and I will treat you with a pint of heavy wet out of your own half-crown, as I have fifteen pence in button-park yet.
1891		Sporting Times 14 Mar. 1/2: Although he had a good run at one time, when he came into breakfast he was only £400 in Button Park.

eccentric, one of many phrs. implying the subject is ‘not all there’.

1867		Birmingham Dly Gaz. 11 Nov. 6/7: ‘He ain’t got all his buttons. No, he be a button short, he be’.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Feb. 6/3: The professor is a local celebrity with rats in his garret, or, in other words, with some ‘buttons’ missing,.
1900		Gloucester Citizen 5 Nov. 3/2: A man, and even a woman, may be a button short, in otheer words, a ‘wee bit daftie’ [...] To be half-a-button short even, is a loss serious to contemplate.
1909		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues I (rev. edn) 456/2: To have lost a button (or be a button short) [...] to be slightly crazy.
1909		Everybody’s Mag. 21 44: He's either dumb or got a button loose somewhere. Won't talk.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 41: Button Loose, A: Silly. Soft headed.
1956		Milwaukee Road Mag. 44-6 5: You’ve got a button loose, man . . . you aren’t normal!
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 82/1: button(s) missing, have a (few) : To be crazy; to be eccentric.
2004		W. Flexner Adolescence 57: Her classmates did not like to have her around, and did tell one another tha she ‘had a few buttons missing’.

(US) to experience orgasm, to relieve sexual tension.

1932

V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 38: Naturally a guy has got to get off the button now and then. But when I get that way, I’m going out and dig me up a broad for the night.

to be ‘sharp’, to know what is going on, to be impervious to hoaxers.

1878		Lafayette Advertiser 2 Feb. 1/4: The home spun proverb about not having all one’s buttons.
1890		W. Harcourt speech in Daily News 21 May 6/3: He is 83 years of age, but as we say hereabouts, has all his buttons on.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 5/1: All his buttons on (C.L., 1880 on) Sharp, alive, active, not to be deceived.
1909		L.A. Herald 13 Oct. 13/5: Hanshire knows everything about this marvellous little car, as he knows the buttons on his coat.
1949		N.Y. Times Book Rev. 25 Sept. 14: Whether you have all your buttons [W&F].
1961		Times 16 Jan. 4/5: But East Midlands, too, had all their buttons on .
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 52: His Eminence knew his buttons when he made you chancellor.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 59: ‘So this Slip,’ went Jimmy, ‘he got all his buttons done up?’.

to be pertinent or relevant or precisely what is required.

2001

Guardian 1 Dec. 🌐 Consumers [...] were deluged with information that failed to ‘hit the button’ when it came to telling them what they actually needed to know.

(Irish) to urinate.

1948

P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 162: ‘I have to go out to loose a button,’ said Joe.

to be eccentric, crazy.

1888		S. Wales Echo 23 Apr. 3/4: Prisoner (an elderly man) pointed to his dress and said smilingly that he was a button short. Mr Wansborough (severely): I should say you had lost all your buttons., It is a scandalous thing [etc].
1909		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues I (rev. edn) 456/2: To have lost a button (or be a button short) [...] to be slightly crazy.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 22: Whitey must be losing his buttons to pick a john this big.

to lack intelligence, to be slightly eccentric or odd.

1860		Hotten Dict. Sl. (2nd edn) 109: Not to have all one’s buttons, to be deficient in intellect.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1893		N.H. Kennard Diogenes’ Sandals 176: They said in the village that he had not ‘got all his buttons’, meaning that he was not ‘all there’.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 206: Ashby impersonated the young man’s fiddle-playing old Pappy who didn’t have all his buttons.
1949		M.E. Counselman ‘The Green Window’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 185/1: Aunt Lucy Dickerson [...] She never did have all her buttons.
1958		‘Ed Lacy’ Room to Swing 95: Old Ma hasn’t all her buttons.
1998–99		The Amusive Network Humorplanet.com 🌐 ‘Unsubscribing from the Joke A Day List’: You’re nuts. You’re insane. [...] You’re missing a few buttons on your remote control.

worthless, useless.

1630		J. Taylor ‘Taylors Travels’ in Works (1869) III 84: Quirks, quiddits, demurs, habeas corpuses, sursararaes, precedendoes, or any such dilatory law-tricks are abolished, and not worth a button.
1654		Witts Recreations ‘Fancies and Fantasticks’ No. 107: And once but tast on the Welsh Mutton; / Your Englis seeps [sic] not worth a button.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 133: Who tho they offer Sheep and Mutton / To thee, I value not a button.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 123: button. A button seems from an early period to have been a common symbol for something of very small value, which was said to be not worth a button.
1837		‘Love in the City’ in Bentley’s Misc. Aug. 130: You life’s not worth a button.
1841		‘My Wife She Often Pulls My Horns’ in Gentleman Steeple-Chaser 43: She often tells me to my face / That I’m not worth a button.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 196: He’ll never be worth a button, if you go on keeping him under your skirts.
1868		‘O Andy J’ Grant Songster 29: We know just how to take your speeches / And they are not worth a button.
1891		G.R. Sims ‘The Button’ Dagonet Ditties 107: Their shares won’t be worth a button.

one is terrified, or jittery.

1562		Jacke Juggler Biii: His arse makith buttens now, and who lustith to feale Shall find his hart creeping pit at his heele.
1568		U. Fulwell Like Will to Like 12: I was so afraid, I was like to bestench the place! My buttocks made buttons of the new fashion.
1575		Appius and Virginia in Farmer (1908) 14: I must be gone, there is no remedy, / For fear, my tail makes buttons, by mine honesty!
c.1580		‘I.T.’ Grim The Collier of Croydon III i: Alas my Breech makes Buttons.
1643		‘Thursday’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 184: This Day a great Fart in the House they did hear, / Which made all the Members make Buttons for fear.
1655		Mercurius Fumigosus 35 24–31 Jan. 275: His Breech ever since makes Buttons.
1665		‘R.M.’ Scarronides 38: He whin’d as though his arse made buttons.
c.1670		Purgatorium Hibernicum 15: The Monaghans began to quake / Stinking for fear did buttons make.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) V 120: Some in the next Woods refuge take, / For all their Arses buttons make.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 95: When Nestor’s Brat by Hector masterd, / My Ars made Buttons for the Bastard.
1689		Irish Hudibras in Bliss Irish Writings from the Age of Swift (1979) 126: The Dear Joys strait began to quake, / Stinking for fear, did Buttons make .
1770		D. Gunston (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 6: While one great personage spends his time in making buttons, another [...] thinks nothing else but stitching button holes.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: His A—e makes Buttons; he is cursedly afraid.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: His a-se makes buttons; he is ready to bewray himself through fear.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome IV 245: John [...] O’er his left shoulder rueful eyed The Boatswain near where he was tied—While he made buttons.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 149: Buttons, to Make. A common time-honoured, but strange expression for sudden apprehension or misgiving.
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 107: I was in an indecisive frame of mind, unable to settle. My arse, as they say, was making buttons.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 53: ‘I know where you live,’ she said [...] My arse making buttons, I stalked off.

1. right on target, usu. of a blow.

1920		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 23: As Placke turned to see who it was he got one on the button that put him out for four hours.
1923		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 25 July [synd. col.] Adair landed ‘flush on the button’ – a straight swing to the jaw.
1936		‘Max Brand’ ‘Fixed’ Coll. Stories (1994) 249: What a beauty ... on the button! He can’t get up.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 92: In the ninth Bicek caught him with a long straight right flush on the button.
1955		E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 260: And here’s to eagle-eye Stanley, whose observations were right on the button.
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 16: ‘On the button, Damon. You’re quick this morning’.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 111: The poor chap outside caught the first round dead on the button.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 318: ‘On the button?’ ‘Wilco.’.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 24 Oct. 13: His wit is sharp, and his plotting is right on the button.

2. up to the minute, fully aware.

1949		N.Y. Times Book Rev. 25 Sept. 14: [title of article] Right on the Button [W&F].
1965		F. Pollini Glover 10: You’re not shittin, man, that’s right on the button.
1993		(con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 80: You’re on the button there, all right.
2009		P. Temple Truth 242: Long ago, my old man said, inner city, never mind price. Always on the button, my dad.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 636: ‘And two hundred years steady growth has been ended in less than two hours.’ Hardy was always on the button.

3. exactly on time, as required.

1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 315: I shot down West Street on the button.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 80: With a pleased glance at his expensive wrist-watch. ‘Not bad. One-fifteen on the button.’.
1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 391: Okay – the men start eating right on the button.
1979		New Musical Express 17 Nov. n.p.: I [...] gave them all the jingoism and all the paraphernalia of Modism, boxing boots and fashionable things, right on the button, timing just right.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 167: I delivered on the button.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 24: [W]e’re all expected to wait around outside until nine o’clock on the actual button.

see bust one’s buttons under bust v.¹

1. to make someone feel special, turned on, loved etc.

1961		T.I. Rubin In the Life 1: Big shot like you—push your button and your whore for the hour is delivered.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 42: They caught me feeling up a girl [...] I was pushing her buttons a little and she loved it.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 78: He is the first person to come along in many moons to press my buttons.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 1 Aug. 45: Presses all the right action-adventure buttons.
2001		Week (US) 4 May 25: She’s intrigued by her power to ‘push his vunerable on and off buttons’.
2002		rtw132 Maureen’s Lusty Confessions 🌐 Push my love button like a game show contestant bound and determined to ring in first in a contest of love.

2. to manipulate someone emotionally, usu. to annoy, to irritate.

1937		C. Odets Golden Boy II iii: You push the buttons, the right buttons. I wanna see Bonaparte with the crown.
1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 22: You just keep pressin my button. You been itchin to bring this subject up for months.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972) 153: press someone’s buttons [...] Verbally make another angry or disturbed; antagonize.
1995		TAC ‘Anti-Semitism’ on Koach List on Shamash.org 🌐 I personally would give him an earful he’d never forget, but I have a thing for Christians who spout trash like this. It presses my button big time.
2000		Guardian Rev. 22 Apr. 7: You can admit to someone [...] ‘I’m just winding you up’, whereas you would never acknowledge ‘I’m pushing your buttons’.
2000		Observer Mag. 21 May 3: Watching Gladiator, [...] manage to push all the right buttons.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 65: Santorra had been pushing his buttons since they first met and tonight he’d pushed one too many.
2020		G. Disher Consolation 144: ‘Given the flick by Mrs Ayliffe so he takes it out on the daughter, which pushes Leon Ayliffe’s button’.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 103: ‘He loved to piss people off [...] He loved pushing people’s buttons’.

1. to set an event or a chain of circumstances in motion.

1914

E. Grey in Europ. Crisis, Corr. (Parlt. Papers CI) 46: Mediation was ready to come into operation by any method that Germany thought possible, if only Germany would ‘press the button’ in the interests of peace .

2. to shoot.

1925

Black Mask Dec. XXII 87: Listen, lady. I have had to press the button on a few guys, yes. In self-defense.

(orig. US) to panic.

1948		Popular Science Dec. 110/1: The student there picks up a whole new jargon [...] if he gets in a tight spot and doesn’t know what to do, he ‘pushes the panic button for two minutes of disorganized confusion’ .
1959		L.P. Boone ‘Gator Sl.’ AS XXXIV:2 156: When a student is so unfortunate as to push the panic button on a test, he chokes up and cannot do his best.
1977		New York Mag. 27 June 13: ‘I’m not pressing the panic button,’ LaMorte insisted. ‘We’ll simply be going through an unpleasant interlude in a major economic expansion.’.
1988		ABA Journal 1 Oct. 105: There are ways to handle the specter of malpractice. You can ignore it and hope it will go away. It won’t. You can push the panic button. But that means you have already panicked.
1999		Guardian 26 Nov. 🌐 We do not believe that there are ‘no grounds for pushing the panic button’, as the Local Government Association states. One in 10 social services departments are failing in their duties to provide services for some of the most vulnerable people in our society and this needs to be urgently addressed.
2004		Indian Express 2 Apr. 🌐 [headline] Pakistan must not press the panic button.

(US) to murder.

1953		S. Sterling ‘The Kiss and Tell Murders’ Popular Detective May 🌐 So after he uses a babe for a little while, he pushes the button on her.
1994		P. Blauner Casino Moon 125: ‘What was his last words?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Whaddya mean, you don’t know? You pushed the button on him, didn’t you?’.

see sweet as (a) nut under sweet adj.¹

(Ulster) to be less than wholly intelligent.

1997

Share Slanguage.

a mild excl. of amusement.

1830		J.B. Buckstone A Husband At Sight I i: Bless my buttons.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 52: Drat my buttons but I depended on you.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 136: Well, blow my buttons!
1941		E. Knight Lassie Come-Home 79: ‘Well, drat my buttons,’ he breathed. ‘Drat my buttons.’.
1947		Yorkshire Eve. Post 2 Jan. 5/3: Run a cargo, bless your buttons [...] Me, a respectable horse dealer...