buttonhole

1. (transitive, colloquial) To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.Examples: "He backed Mr. Lykins against an iron fence, buttonholed him, fastened him with his eye, like the ancient mariner, and proceeded to unfold his narrative as placidly and peacefully as if we were all stretched comfortably in a blossomy summer meadow instead of being persecuted by a wintry midnight tempest: […]"; "Hiro and Chuck grab the closest thing they can find to a corner table. Hiro buttonholes a waiter and surreptitiously orders a pitcher of Pub Special, mixed half and half with nonalcoholic beer."; "He buttonholed people on the street and related details of his child’s miraculous progress without even prefacing his remarks with the hypocritical but polite: “I know everyone thinks their own child is smart but—”"Synonyms: accost, waylaycolloquialtransitive

2. (ambitransitive) To cut one or more buttonholes (in).ambitransitive

3. (transitive) To sew by buttonhole stitch.transitive

4. (transitive, surgery, chiefly archaic) To make a small slot-like incision in (intentionally or unintentionally).archaictransitive

5. (transitive, rare) To apply a flowery formation in.Examples: "What tree of more pulchritude and symmetricalness could you nominate for roadside, street and public park planting than the graceful linden? We should possess more of the spirit which predominates in this direction in the crowning gem of America’s constitutionality—the City of Washington, D. C. ‘‘Unter den Lindens’’ would not only be found in Germany, but in all the large cities of our grand and glorious United States. Washington has her Unter den Linden in the Massachussetts^([sic]) avenue. Her North and South Capital streets are buttonholed with the stately tulips, which are fit emblems to thus adorn the meridian of the United States."raretransitive

6. (intransitive, archaic, rare) To attain buttonhole-like formations on cutting.Examples: "Furze cut it himself after his dinner, with great care and concentrated solemnity, finding the loaf rather too new and the knife too blunt for the carving of slices of ideal thinness. The beastly things would buttonhole!"archaicintransitiverare