hold by the button

English

Verb

hold by the button (third-person singular simple present holds by the button, present participle holding by the button, simple past and past participle held by the button)

1. (archaic, idiomatic, transitive) To detain in conversation to the point of weariness; to bore; to buttonhole.
   • 1798, A Clergyman of the County of Kent, Crude Thoughts:

     When a slanderer addresses himself to any one, let him only withhold his attention, while he argues thus with himself: --- Why does this man hold me by the button, and seem so desirous of calling my attention to another's failings?

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “hold by the button”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)