Buttock Ball, subs. (old).—1. A dance attended by prostitutes. Cf., Ballum rancum and Buff ball.
1687. T. Brown, Lib., Consc., in Dk. Buckingham's Wks. (1705), II., 131. Why not into a Bibbing-house, as well as a Dancing School, a buttoc-ball, or the like.
2. (old.)—The sexual embrace; cohabitation. Cf., Bawdy banquet and Buttock banquetting.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Buttock-ball, the amorous congress.
Buttock Banquetting, subs. (old).—Harlotry.
1555. Fardle Facions, II., viii., 167. Whiche [wiues] maie neuerthelesse vse buttocke banquetyng abrode.
Buttock-Broker, subs. (old).—A procuress; a bawd; an abbess (q.v.).
Buttocking Shop, subs. (old).—A brothel; a house of ill fame used by the lowest class of public women.
Button, subs. (old).—1. A shilling. Formerly this applied to good currency; it now only signifies counterfeit coin. For synonyms, see Blow.
2. A decoy of any kind, whether the confederate of confidence trick men, or a sham buyer at an auction. Frequently called a buttoner (q.v.). Cf., Bunco-steerer. Fr. un allumé.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 358. They [cheap Jacks] have a man, or more generally a boy . . . at a fair, to hank, or act as a button (a decoy), to purchase the first lot of goods put up. Ibid, III., p. 121. Then he (the thimble-rigger) turns round to the crowd, and pretends to be pushing them back, and whilst he is saying, 'Come gentlemen, stand more backwarder,' one of the confederates, who is called a 'button,' lifts up one of the thimbles with a pea under it, and laughs to those around, as much as to say, 'We've found it out.'
1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, ix. The button, that is the confederate who egged on the fiats.
Verb.—To decoy; to act as confederate in swindles. Fr. aguicher.
Not to care a button—brass button, etc., phr. (common).—A very old colloquialism indicative of small value. It has been in continuous use from the beginning of the fourteenth century down to the present time. Americans say 'not worth a cent or a red cent,' while among variants in common use in England may be mentioned 'not to care a fig—a pin—or a sou.'
Button Burster or Button Buster, subs. (theatrical).—A low comedian. [The derivation is sufficiently obvious, that is, one who causes his auditors to laugh so that by a figure of speech their buttons are regarded as bursting off their clothes.]
Button-Catcher, subs. (general).—A tailor. There may be mentioned among
English Synonyms, snip; cabbage contractor; steel-bar driver; goose persuader; sufferer; ninth part of a man, etc.
French Synonyms. Un gobe-*prune (thieves'); un emmailloteur (popular); un mangeur de prunes (general); un pique-poux; un pique-prunes; un pique-puces; un croque-prunes; un frus-quineur.
