Forms: 4–5 boten, 5 bothon, 6–7 butten, 5– button. [f. BUTTON sb.; cf. F. boutonner.]
1. trans. To furnish or adorn with buttons or knobs. (Usually in pa. pple.).
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 166. Gloues … þat with gold ibotened were.
1394. P. Pl. Crede, 296. A cote … queyntly y-botend.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxvi. 233. Short clothes … on euery syde slatered and botened.
1658. Ussher, Ann., 742. A purple robe buttoned with precious stones.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. viii. Without vestments, till he buy or steal such, and … sew and button them.
b. To fit (a fencing foil) with a button (see BUTTON sb. 5 e).
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 168. A sticke … buttoned at the end with leather, in manner of a foile.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 17. To have fenced with rebated rapiers and swords buttoned up.
† c. To raise knobs or pimples on. Obs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. (1606), 345. Humour which … within Their bodies boyling butt’neth all their Skin.
2. To fasten (a garment) with buttons; to secure or close by means of a button or buttons. Often with up.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46. Bothon clothys, botono, fibulo.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 320. These the Christians vse to butten on the right syde: and the Tartars butten them on the lefte syde.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., X. 484. Ella … buttoned on his rich embroider’d Vest.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3701/4. A Beaver Hat buttoned up.
1827. Carlyle, Transl. (1874), 41. He … buttoned-up his scissor-pouch.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xv. He buttoned his doublet anew.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, v. 274. Something he can button in his pocket.
1864. Mag. for Young, Sept., 290. Jack had got Euclid buttoned up inside his jacket.
b. To fasten the clothes of (a person) with buttons. Usually refl.; also absol. (for refl.).
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 20. He could not button himself, nor put on his clothes.
1855. Chamb. Jrnl., IV. 187/2. I had to button up against a succession of short summer showers.
1862. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xxxiv. 201. Old gentlemen buttoned up across the chest.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes, 66. I buttoned myself into my coat.
c. To fasten (a door) with a BUTTON (sb. 4).
1837. New Monthly Mag., L. 397. [She] … buttoned the door.
1882. Blackmore, Christowell, I. xvi. 249. To keep one pew buttoned on a Sunday.
3. fig. To close tightly, fasten, confine, keep under restraint, etc. Often with up.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. ii. 34. On[e] whose hard heart is button’d vp with steele.
1598. Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., XI. ix. (1622), 151. The Princes eares would be buttened and deafe.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. xi. Buttoned up in the straitest non-conformity.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1871), II. IV. iii. 136. Thoughts—which he must button close up.
1840. W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 151. Shy and solitary, and, as it were, buttoned up, body and soul.
4. intr. (for refl.) Of garments: To be, or be capable of being, fastened (up) with buttons.
1777. Sheridan, Trip Scarb., I. ii. If it had been tighter, ’twould neither have hooked nor buttoned.
1839. New Monthly Mag., LV. 483. A jacket that buttons up close to the neck.
1875. Besant & Rice, Harp & Crown, II. iii. 66. It [the coat] buttons across the chest.
† 5. intr. Of plants: To bud, put forth buds. Of fruits: To assume the globular shape.
1669. Woodhead, St. Teresa, I. xiv. 88. These Trees begin to button, and bud out towards flouring.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), III. 899. Some [fruit] just beginning to button.
b. Of broccoli and cauliflowers: To come to a head prematurely.
1852. [see BUTTONING vbl. sb.].
1882. Garden, 18 March, 187/3. The crop … showing no tendency either to button or run to seed.
1884. Field, 12 July, 67. Cauliflowers button at an early stage, and are useless.
6. trans. In fencing: To touch with the button of the foil.
1842. Blackw. Mag., LII. 566. I should have buttoned them ten times for every twice they touched me.
