buttons

Etymology

noun

1. plural of button

noun

1. The dung of sheep.
2. (colloquial) A remote control.
3. (colloquial, dated) A boy servant, or page.
4. (slang) A policeman.
   ‘Go ahead, call the buttons. You'll get a big reaction from it.’ 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 78
5. (colloquial) Synonym of marbles (“sanity; mental faculties”)
   And we've got that other boy now, Ganesh something, I met him once, and I didn't understand a word he was saying, but the child seems to have all his buttons. 2004, Jane Stevenson, The Empress of the Last Days, page 109
   That night in his room before he'd left for New Orleans, Lewis had behaved like he didn't have all his buttons. 2006, Frances Hunter, To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark, page 84
   In the quaint vernacular of old Dad Peppin, Zion Jore might not have all his buttons, but he had more of what he did have than most men—more imagination to conceive a plot, more daring to carry it out, no fear to hamper him, […] 2018, Cherry Wilson, Outcasts of Picture Rocks
6. A small South African plant of the genus Conophytum, with button-like succulent leaves covering its exterior.

verb

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of button