Dictionary

buttonhook en · NOUN

Etymology

From button + hook.

Meanings

1. (historical) A hook for pulling the buttons of gloves and shoes through the buttonholes.
   • ‘I'm sorry we are so late,’ he was saying. ‘We couldn't find a button-hook, so it took us a long time to button our boots.’ 1920, DH Lawrence, Women in Love, Vintage, published 2008, page 14:
   • Hustlers used to sell shoes like that to the greenhorns fifty years ago with a buttonhook for a bonus. 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 370:
2. A play in which the receiver runs straight downfield, then turns back toward the line of scrimmage.
   • Yet the Bears never set up the deep patterns with a turn-in or a buttonhook[…]. 1988 January 15, Ted Cox, “The Sports Section”, in Chicago Reader:
3. A hook used to pull thread through the holes of a button.

Forms

Translations (6)

uk гапли́к (A hook used to pull thread through a button's holes) · ga crúca cnaipe (A hook used to pull thread through a button's holes) · et nööbisulane (A hook used to pull thread through a button's holes) · pt abotoador (A hook used to pull thread through a button's holes) · pl haczyk (A hook used to pull thread through a button's holes) · pdt Knoophoake (A hook used to pull thread through a button's holes)

buttonhook en · VERB

Etymology

From button + hook.

Meanings

1. To perform the buttonhook play.

Forms