buttoned-up
Americanadjective
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conservative, as in professional style or manner.
Employers are looking for buttoned-up types.
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carefully planned, operated, supervised, etc..
It's one of the most buttoned-up companies in the business.
Etymology
Origin of buttoned-up
First recorded in 1935–40
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.
It’s hard to get buttoned up and take things seriously.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026
By keeping buttoned up about its plans and intentions, Team Trump appears to have spared itself the Pottery Barn rule.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 6, 2026
While being escorted into the ceremony in the Capitol, eyes hidden behind her hat and coat buttoned up, she was a dead-ringer for H.G.
From Salon • Jan. 21, 2025
Today, he is quite literally more buttoned up, wearing a proper suit jacket and pale tie - perhaps a reflection of the higher stakes of this criminal proceeding.
From BBC • May 13, 2024
He had half a bagel clamped in his teeth as he buttoned up his shirt, some sort of uniform.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
