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A shrub (Cephalanthus occidentalis) growing by the waterside; - - so called from its globular head of flowers. See Capitulum.

The hole or loop in which a button is caught.

A disk of bone, wood, or other material, which is made into a button by covering it with cloth. [Written also buttonmould.] Fossil buttonmolds, joints of encrinites. See Encrinite.

A boy servant, or page, -- in allusion to the buttons on his livry. [Colloq.] Dickens.

The name of several plants of the genera Spermacoce and Diodia, of the Madder family.

plane tree, a large tree, producing rough balls, from which it is named; -- called also buttonball tree, and, in some parts of the United States, sycamore. The California buttonwood is P. racemosa.

Ornamented with a large number of buttons. "The buttony boy." Thackeray. "My coat so blue and buttony." W. S. Gilbert.

Anything which supports or strengthens. "The ground pillar and buttress of the good old cause of nonconformity." South. Flying buttress. See Flying buttress.

To unite by a butt weld.

One who mines by contract, at so much per ton of coal or ore.

A compound radical, regarded as butane, less one atom of hydrogen.

A colorless liquid base, C4H9NH2, of which there are four isomeric varieties.

Any one of three metameric hydrocarbons, C4H8, of the ethylene series. They are gaseous or easily liquefiable.

Having the qualities of butter; resembling butter.

A salt of butyric acid.

Pertaining to, or derived from, butter. Butyric acid, C3H7.CO2H, an acid found in butter; an oily, limpid fluid, having the smell of rancid butter, and an acrid taste, with a sweetish aftertaste, like that of ether. There are two metameric butyric acids, called in distinction the normal- and iso-butyric acid. The norma…

A butyrate of glycerin; a fat contained in small quantity in milk, which helps to give to butter its peculiar flavor.

An instrument for determining the amount of fatty matter or butter contained in a sample of milk.

A liquid ketone obtained by heating calcium butyrate.

Butyraceous.