shirt-button

English

Alternative forms

• shirt button, shirtbutton

Noun

shirt-button (plural shirt-buttons)

1. A button for a shirt, usually a man's.
   • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XXIV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     […] though Mrs. Norris could fidget about the room, and disturb everybody in quest of two needlefuls of thread or a second-hand shirt button, in the midst of her nephew’s account of a shipwreck or an engagement, everybody else was attentive […]

   • 1853, Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, in The Piazza Tales‎^[1], New York: Dix, Edwards & Co, published 1856:

     He had frequently restored to me sixpences and shillings carelessly dropped upon the floor, for I am apt to be very reckless in such shirt-button affairs [i.e., involving things of low value].

   • 1975, André Brink, An Instant in the Wind‎^[2], New York: William Morrow, published 1977, pages 219–220:

     A couple of his shirtbuttons were missing, the dark hair of his chest protruding through the gap.

Hypernyms

• button