| button | 1. A knob; a small ball; a small, roundish mass. 2. A catch, of various forms and materials, used to fasten together the different parts of dress, by being attached to one part, and passing through a slit, called a buttonhole, in the other; used also for ornament. 3. A bud; a germ of a plant. 4. A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door. 5. A globule of metal remaining onan assay cupel or in a crucible, after fusion. Button hook, a hook for catching a button and drawing it through a buttonhole, as in buttoning boots and gloves. <zoology> Button shell, a small, univalve marine shell of the genus Rotella. Button snakeroot. <botany> A genus of trees (Conocarpus), furnishing durable timber, mostly natives of the West Indies. To hold by the button, to detain in conversation to weariness; to bore; to buttonhole. Origin: OE. Boton, botoun, F. Bouton button, bud, prop. Something pushing out, fr. Bouter to push. See Butt an end. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| button suture | A suture in which the threads are passed through the holes of a button and then tied; used to reduce the danger of the threads cutting through the flesh. (05 Mar 2000) |
| buttonball | <botany> See Buttonwood. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| buttonbush | <botany> A shrub (Cephalanthus occidentalis) growing by the waterside; so called from its globular head of flowers. See Capitulum. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| buttonhole | 1. A short straight cut made through the wall of a cavity or canal. 2. The contraction of an orifice down to a narrow slit; i.e., the so-called mitral buttonhole in extreme mitral stenosis. See: buttonhole stenosis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| buttonhole iridectomy | peripheral iridectomy |
| buttonhole stenosis | Extreme narrowing, usually of the mitral valve. (05 Mar 2000) |
| buttonmold | A disk of bone, wood, or other material, which is made into a button by covering it with cloth. Alternative forms: buttonmould] Fossil buttonmolds, joints of encrinites. See Encrinite. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| buttonweed | <botany> The name of several plants of the genera Spermacoce and Diodia, of the Madder family. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| buttonwood | <botany> The Platanus occidentalis, or American 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. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Amboyna button | <medicine> A disease, occurring in the Antilles and in Africa, characterised by yellowish or reddish tumours, of a contagious character, which, in shape and appearance, often resemble currants, strawberries, or raspberries. There are several varieties of this disease, variously known as framboesia, pian, verrugas, and crab-yaws. Origin: African yaw a raspberry. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| bachelor's button | <botany> A plant with flowers shaped like buttons; especially, several species of Ranunculus, and the cornflower (Centaures cyanus) and globe amaranth (Gomphrena). Bachelor's buttons, a name given to several flowers "from their similitude to the jagged cloathe buttons, anciently worne in this kingdom", according to Johnson's; but by other writers ascribed to "a habit of country fellows to carry them in their pockets to divine their success with their sweethearts." Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| belly button | The navel or umbilicus. The one-time site of attachment of the umbilical cord. The term belly button was coined around 1877. (12 Dec 1998) |
| Biskra button | The lesion occurring in cutaneous leishmaniasis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| peritoneal button | A device used to drain ascitic fluid to subcutaneous space. (05 Mar 2000) |
| collar-button abscess | An abscess consisting of two cavities connected by a narrow isthmus, usually formed by rupture of an abscesses through a fascial layer in the hand or foot. Synonym: shirt-stud abscess. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Murphy's button | An obsolete appliance formerly used for intestinal anastomosis; it consists of two hollow cylinders, one of which is sutured into each open end of the intestine; the two are then joined and fasten automatically, maintaining the two ends of intestine in apposition by their serous surfaces; after firm union has occurred the cylinders slough away and are passed in the stools. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Oriental button | The lesion occurring in cutaneous leishmaniasis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| tracheostomy button | A 1/2- to 1 1/2-inch-long plastic tube placed in the stoma to keep it open. (12 Dec 1998) |