buttonhole
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"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
For days as the historic floor fight played out, Mr. McCarthy had remained in his seat and dispatched allies to buttonhole the remaining holdouts privately.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2023
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
He shook his head and his mouth drew up tight as a buttonhole.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
![]()
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
We made sweat lodges out of broken branches dug back into the earth, covered over with our shirts tied together at the buttonholes.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
![]()
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
These are some of the issues the kids wrote on posters at the forum and buttonholed the candidates on at the reception.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 13, 2022
He buttonholed a priest who was coming back with one of the returning streams of pilgrims.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
![]()
The trust acknowledged that Dr Sangala and Ms Kattenhorn were supportive of the buttonholing technique and had spoken about it at national and international conferences.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2024
A young William Boeing showed up day after day, buttonholing every pilot he could for a skyride.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2023
Netanyahu continued the efforts until the last moment, according to reports from the chamber, buttonholing individual members overnight as the voting continued on more than 700 individual provisions.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2021
Later, both of them could be seen on the Senate floor buttonholing colleagues and talking through possible revisions to the bill.
From New York Times ● Jul. 30, 2021
The band at K is merely surface buttonholing over a series of slanting stitches. to work J, 34.
From Art in Needlework A Book about Embroidery by Buckle, Mary