Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Having the ends of the collar fastened down by buttons: Describes a style of shirt where the collar points are secured to the shirt body with small buttons.
   • Unimaginatively conventional, conservative, or staid: Describes a person, attitude, or environment that is extremely conventional, formal, or resistant to change.

Usage and Examples

• Literal meaning (shirt style):

  • He prefers a classic button-down shirt for business meetings.
  • The button-down collar is a staple of preppy fashion.

• Figurative meaning (conventional attitude):

  • The company's button-down culture discourages creative risk-taking.
  • Despite the industry's creativity, his approach remained button-down.

Advanced Usage

• The term can be used attributively (before a noun) or predicatively (after a linking verb).
  • Attributive: a button-down executive.
  • Predicative: The office atmosphere is very button-down.

Variants and Related Words

• Button-down shirt (n.): The specific garment. Often used as a compound noun, but the core adjective "button-down" modifies "shirt."
• Buttoned-down (adj.): A variant spelling, especially common in the figurative sense. (e.g., ).

Synonyms

• Literal: buttoned-collar.
• Figurative: conventional, conservative, staid, formal, strait-laced.

Antonyms

• Figurative: unconventional, creative, innovative, casual, Bohemian.

Notes

• The hyphen is typically used when the term functions as a compound adjective (e.g., ). When used figuratively, it is sometimes written as "buttoned-down."
• The figurative sense derives from the association of the button-down shirt style with traditional, conservative professions and attitudes.

Adjective

1. of a shirt; having the ends of the collar fastened down by buttons
   • Brooks Brothers button-down shirts
2. unimaginatively conventional
   • a colorful character in the buttoned-down, dull-grey world of business- Newsweek