buttons

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English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈbʌtn̩z/
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Hyphenation: but‧tons

Noun

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buttons

  1. plural of button

Noun

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buttons

  1. The dung of sheep.
  2. (colloquial) A remote control.
  3. (colloquial, dated) A boy servant, or page.
    • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations [], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, [], published October 1861, →OCLC:
      A Custum' Us officer knows what to do with his Buttons, "said the Jack , repeating the obnoxious word with the greatest contempt , “when they comes betwixt him and his own light [] "
  4. (slang) A policeman.
    • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 78:
      ‘Go ahead, call the buttons. You'll get a big reaction from it.’
  5. (colloquial) Synonym of marbles (sanity; mental faculties)
    • 2004, Jane Stevenson, The Empress of the Last Days, page 109:
      And we've got that other boy now, Ganesh something, I met him once, and I didn't understand a word he was saying, but the child seems to have all his buttons.
    • 2006, Frances Hunter, To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark, page 84:
      That night in his room before he'd left for New Orleans, Lewis had behaved like he didn't have all his buttons.
    • 2018, Cherry Wilson, Outcasts of Picture Rocks:
      In the quaint vernacular of old Dad Peppin, Zion Jore might not have all his buttons, but he had more of what he did have than most men—more imagination to conceive a plot, more daring to carry it out, no fear to hamper him, []
  6. A small South African plant of the genus Conophytum, with button-like succulent leaves covering its exterior.

Verb

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buttons

  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of button

French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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buttons

  1. inflection of butter:
    1. first-person plural present indicative
    2. first-person plural imperative