Definition of "button"

I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

O queen Emilia, / Fresher than May, sweeter / Than her gold buttons on the boughs,

c. 1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen, act 3, scene 1, lines 4–6

In attempting to touch down on the button of the runway, he misjudged his altitude and struck a pile of rocks short of the runway. The right wheel was torn off and the gear leg bent backwards.

1984, Synopses of Aircraft Accidents: Civil Aircraft in Canada, page 42

The second and slightly higher aircraft on the approach showed no reaction to this barrage of pyrotechnics and continued blissfully down toward the button of the runway.

1999, Les Morrison, Of Luck and War, page 69

It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a test

1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!‎

'She has heard from us this morning,' said Mr. Gamble, grinning on his watch, 'and she knows all by this time, and 'tisn't a button to her.'

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

As to that I did not care a button, but I had wanted to hear about Betty, and now her name was barely mentioned.

1922, Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy

One thing you definitely don't want to do is write past the button. For example, a scene's natural button might run something like this:TONY: That kind of talk is exactly what I'm talking about.Whereas an example of writing past the button would sound something like this:TONY: That kind of talk is exactly what I'm talking about.CARMELLA: Okay. 'Bye.TONY: Bye.

2006, David Kukoff, Vault Guide to Television Writing Careers, page 77

Scenes usually go out on a laugh line, a stinger or a button. End your script with a twist!

2002 November 8, Jean Ann Wright, “Animation Comedy and Gag Writing”, in Animation World Network‎

With our show, one thing we wanted to do was give our best effort to always put a button on the scene.

2014 June 18, Daniel Schindel, “3 Comedy Sketches that Changed Key and Peele's Lives”, in Los Angeles Magazine‎

Is there a best way to end a comedy sketch? Endings — or outs, or buttons as writers call them — are notoriously difficult to nail. The ideal ending needs to be satisfying and surprising while staying true to the comedic game that preceded it.

2016 July 12, Jessica Goldstein, “How to best end a comedy sketch? It’s hard to go wrong with gruesome death”, in The Washington Post‎

FREDO: Mikey, why would they ever hit poor old Frankie Five-Angels? I loved that ole sonuvabitch. I remember when he was just a 'button,' when we were kids.

1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)

Hardly a rattler is ever reported in the newspapers unless it is stated to have had "blank rattles and a button". But here button usually means the terminal lobe of the last rattle, even though the string may not be complete, the true button and additional rattles having been lost.

1936, Laurence Monroe Klauber, A Statistical Study of the Rattlesnakes, page 26

He was a tall, fat, long-bodied man, buttoned up to the throat in a tight green coat.

1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 50, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839