Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

button man en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (slang) A contract killer; a professional assassin.
    • But death is never symmetrical and tidy, and the button man had nothing to say. 2005, Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936, page 44:
    • "Twenty years ago, he was Little Pete Drago, a button man for the boys on Mulberry Street. He's probably got twenty notches on his piece 2000, Stuart Woods, Worst Fears Realized, page 177:
    • I was called a "buffoon" in the paper of record, the New York Times, and the Washington Post described me fondly as "Clinton's gunsel," his button man 2000, James Carville, Stickin': The Case for Loyalty, page 13:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
button men Number=Plur lexicographic