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.
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"I would say that the buttonhole needling technique destroyed her life, certainly destroyed her health," says Dr Macanovic.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2024
They relied on Griffin, who utilized her thick Rolodexes and neighborhood connections to buttonhole politicians, community members and others to fight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
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
Only Basta wore a snow-white shirt, just as Dustfinger had said, with a red flower in the buttonhole of his jacket, a red flower like a warning.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
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
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
He buttonholes Bennedith and tells her a story about the time he was wronged by an evil nun with a maimed hand.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2022
They were suddenly having difficulty getting the buttons of his shirt through the buttonholes.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
Clare buttonholed Archer and, according to his own account, the would-be candidate burst into tears and asked that the story be quashed.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
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
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
Another essay has him getting buttonholed by a righteous white man at a party who insists that Walker ought to feel oppressed.
From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2020
When he got back ashore, he walked up to a reporter at the shell house, buttonholed him, and rendered a startling verdict: “Tom Bolles has a fine rough-water boat,” he said quietly but forcefully.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Its tone and rhythms are oracular and epic, as if some ancient prophet is buttonholing you to tell you how the world has always been and will always be.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust told the BBC that while UK vascular access guidelines do not recommend buttonholing, they "do not specifically state that it is contraindicated".
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2024
Then Mr. Traum tried buttonholing people on the street.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
They’ve had mixed success buttonholing people on the street to pose.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 21, 2023
Whereat Concetta, making a wry face, protested that in spite of the buttonholing she would rather make the scrap-book.
From Brenda's Bargain A Story for Girls by Helen Leah Reed
Vocabulary lists containing buttonhole
