hold by the button

hold by the button (third-person singular simple present holds by the button, present participle holding by the button, simple past and past participle held by the button)

1. (archaic, idiomatic, transitive) To detain in conversation to the point of weariness or tedium; to bore while tallking to

   Synonym: buttonhole

   • 1798, A Clergyman of the County of Kent, Crude Thoughts:

     When a slanderer addresses himself to any one, let him only withhold his attention, while he argues thus with himself: --- Why does this man hold me by the button, and seem so desirous of calling my attention to another's failings?

• “button”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.