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erent parts of dress, by being attached to one part, and passing through a slit, called a buttonhole, in the other; -- used also for ornament.

See Buttonwood.

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.

n 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.

A chronic skin affection terminating in an ulcer, most commonly of the face. It is endemic along the Mediterranean, and is probably due to a specific bacillus. Called also Aleppo ulcer, Biskara boil, Delhi boil, Oriental sore, etc.

A chronic contagious affection of the skin, prevalent in the tropics.

, (Bot.) A plant with flowers shaped like buttons; especially, several species of Ranunculus, and the cornflower (Centaures cyanus) and globe amaranth (Gomphrena).

Same as Aleppo boil.

A simple device, resembling a button in form, so arranged that pushing it closes an electric circuit, as of an electric bell.

To loose the buttons of; to unfasten.

A species of inflorescence; a catkin. The globular ament of a buttonwood. Coues.

rs of Jacob Amman, a strict Mennonite of the 17th century, who even proscribed the use of buttons and shaving as "worldly conformity". There are several branches of Amish Mennonites in the United States.

A buttonhole stitch worked wide apart on the edge of material, as blankets, too thick to hem.

Having a bud or button, or a kind of trefoil, at the end; furnished with knobs or buttons. Cross bottony (Her.), a cross having each arm terminating in three rounded lobes, forming a sort of trefoil.

A bouquet worn in a buttonhole.