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.

Tegmark buttonholed Elon Musk at a 2014 MIT conference on space, after one of his students asked a question that prompted the billionaire’s now-famous quip that, with AI, “we are summoning the demon.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 4, 2026

At the lighting ceremony, a non-Jewish man buttonholed the rabbi to thank him for procuring badly needed heart medicine for him during a spate of intense bombardment.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 17, 2023

Resident Caroline Aguirre, a retired parole agent, said she buttonholed one courier trying to deliver a bag marked with the name James on it and explained the order wasn’t for her.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 15, 2023

Only one character in “Sign” identifies as Black, which surprised white critics who had buttonholed Hansberry as a writer devoted to Black characters.

From New York Times • Feb. 1, 2023

Only a few weeks previously, Weaver confided, Fosdick had been buttonholed at a benefit dinner by Dave Hennen Morris, a wealthy former ambassador to Belgium and a board member of the Research Corporation.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik