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.
“Not Built in a Day” will not be to everyone’s taste, but it is meant to reach an audience that might decline to read a more buttoned-up account.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The shifting promises are unsurprising to colleagues familiar with the brash, quick-tempered Gorka, a gate crasher in Washington’s buttoned-up defense establishment.
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2026
The disappearance of Guthrie, a crime that remains uncracked after more than three weeks, is the rare story that spans the breadth of tabloid gossip and buttoned-up newspaper reporting.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
Yet she did it with her reserved way of speaking and her buttoned-up manner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2025
For this buttoned-up age, for Burnham, it was a letter that could have steamed itself open.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
