button up
Appearance
See also: button-up
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]button up (third-person singular simple present buttons up, present participle buttoning up, simple past and past participle buttoned up)
- (transitive) To fasten with a button or buttons.
- Button up your shirt cuff. It has come undone.
- (intransitive) To fasten all the buttons on a coat, or similar item of clothing, to keep warm.
- Button up well. It's freezing outside today.
- (transitive, intransitive) to conclude; to finalize; to put the finishing touches (on)
- It's time to button up the meeting.
- Alternative form of button up one's lip.
- He needs to button up.
- (US, military, slang, transitive, ergative) To seal off (a military vehicle or facility).
- 1996, Airman, volume 40, page 6:
- Once buttoned up, NORAD's operation center can survive for more than 30 days without aid from the outside world.
- 1997, “Statement of S/Sgt. Alfred Sueflow, Company E, 253rd Infantry”, in Battle Between the Jagst and Kocher Rivers, 4-12 April 1945[1], page 136:
- We fired at the tanks and caused them to "button up" and then we started shooting the infantry.
- 2000, Bonnie Ramthun, Ground Zero, page 6:
- He turned a key. NORAD buttoned up. The outside lights, flashing for half an hour now in warning of a simulated attack, stopped. Whoever was inside would stay inside. Whoever was outside would not be able to get in […]
Usage notes
[edit]- The object in 1 can come before or after the particle. If it is a pronoun, then it must come before the particle.
Translations
[edit]to fasten with a button or buttons
|
to fasten all buttons to keep warm
|
Categories:
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English phrasal verbs
- English phrasal verbs formed with "up"
- English multiword terms
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English intransitive verbs
- American English
- en:Military
- English slang
- English ergative verbs
- English terms with quotations