buttons
noun/ˈbʌt.ənz/ · [ˈbʌt.n̩z]
1
The dung of sheep.
2
Colloquial A remote control.
3
Colloquial, Dated A boy servant, or page.
- 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[…]"1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC:
4
Slang A policeman.
- ‘Go ahead, call the buttons. You'll get a big reaction from it.’1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 78:
5
Colloquial Synonym of marbles (“sanity; mental faculties”).
- 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.2004, Jane Stevenson, The Empress of the Last Days, page 109:
- That night in his room before he'd left for New Orleans, Lewis had behaved like he didn't have all his buttons.2006, Frances Hunter, To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark, page 84:
1 more example
- 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, […]2018, Cherry Wilson, Outcasts of Picture Rocks:
6
A small South African plant of the genus Conophytum, with button-like succulent leaves covering its exterior.