buttonhole

"Since I was born I have never experienced stable power supply. We call ourselves the giant of Africa but we can't fix electricity," complains Mr Adah as he works on a buttonhole.

From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2023

She bounced around from L.A. factory to L.A. factory, avoiding wage theft and dodging sweatshops, before finally finding a job as a buttonhole operator on a production line, earning a decent wage.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2022

They have lunches, meet at conferences, buttonhole departmental women visitors, set up private Facebook pages and Slack channels, and are all over Twitter.

From Scientific American ● Mar. 25, 2022

This opens the floor to everyone who has ideas — not just those with the loudest voices or the chutzpah to buttonhole leaders in passing to pitch their ideas.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2022

“Sir?” said Cholly, trying to find a buttonhole.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

His red coat with black trim, red waistcoat with hand-stitched buttonholes and gold regimental buttons, and white breeches “represent the only complete uniform of the Revolutionary war.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025

The golf stories are narrated by the “oldest member” of an upper-class golf club who buttonholes unwary younger members to regale them with his memories of golfers he has known.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2025

Even in interviews, Arnhold educates, buttonholes, lobbies for her cause — graciously but inexorably.

From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2023

David Whelan said his brother must work at least eight hours a day, six days a week, on menial tasks like making buttonholes, which has caused him repetitive strain injury.

From Reuters ● Nov. 3, 2022

Mr. Cantor and I took flowers over to the groom and his best man to put in their buttonholes.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

Tegmark buttonholed Elon Musk at a 2014 MIT conference on space, after one of his students asked a question that prompted the billionaire’s now-famous quip that, with AI, “we are summoning the demon.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 4, 2026

At a moment of vulnerability, Harper is buttonholed by an old classmate named Sue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2025

Resident Caroline Aguirre, a retired parole agent, said she buttonholed one courier trying to deliver a bag marked with the name James on it and explained the order wasn’t for her.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2023

As the meeting broke up and council members prepared to meet with their lawyer, BLM 757 leader Japharii Jones, who had carried his black-and-white flag into the meeting, buttonholed Willis.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2021

A reporter from United Press buttonholed Al Ulbrickson on the way into the shell house and asked him what he thought of his boys.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Jasna Macanovic, who worked at the QA for 17 years, had raised concerns about the way the trust was allowing some staff to deliver the dialysis technique - known as buttonholing.

From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2024

They’ve had mixed success buttonholing people on the street to pose.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 21, 2023

A young William Boeing showed up day after day, buttonholing every pilot he could for a skyride.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2023

Desperate for resolution, the family banded together with others to form the National League of POW/MIA Families, lobbying politicians and buttonholing generals in the halls of the Capitol to demand action.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2021

He has been buttonholing every yokel he came across, and asking them why they had to work, while we—I and you, you know—did nothing.

From The Wonderful Visit by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells