"button pusher" meaning in English

See button pusher in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: button pushers [plural]
Etymology: In the provoker sense, by a metaphor in which the recipient's emotions can be manipulated on command as if prompted by literal control buttons. Thus also tangentially comparable with a puppet master who is pulling the strings to manipulate puppets. Head templates: {{en-noun}} button pusher (plural button pushers)
  1. (idiomatic) Someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: buttonpusher [alternative], button-pusher [alternative]
    Sense id: en-button_pusher-en-noun-1U1UKMAL
  2. (manufacturing, business, often mildly derogatory) A low-skilled or unskilled worker: someone from whom one can expect little or nothing more than rote pushing of buttons (not showing, for example, critical thinking, insight, or leadership). Tags: derogatory, mildly, often Related terms: buttonpusher [alternative], button-pusher [alternative]
    Sense id: en-button_pusher-en-noun-wtR5NFjL Categories (other): Business, Manufacturing, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 33 67 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 33 67 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 32 68 Topics: business, manufacturing
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: push-button

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "In the provoker sense, by a metaphor in which the recipient's emotions can be manipulated on command as if prompted by literal control buttons. Thus also tangentially comparable with a puppet master who is pulling the strings to manipulate puppets.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "button pushers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "button pusher (plural button pushers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "52 48",
      "word": "push-button"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: gadfly, goader, provocateur, provoker"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              72,
              85
            ]
          ],
          "text": "When you're dealing with Tom, you need to keep in mind that he can be a button pusher sometimes. Stay cool, and don't reinforce that behavior.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-button_pusher-en-noun-1U1UKMAL",
      "links": [
        [
          "pushes someone else's buttons",
          "push someone's buttons"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "buttonpusher"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "button-pusher"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Business",
          "orig": "en:Business",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Manufacturing",
          "orig": "en:Manufacturing",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "32 68",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              107,
              120
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Bill has been working here for 4 years and is looking for ways to upskill. He says he doesn't want to be a button pusher forever.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A low-skilled or unskilled worker: someone from whom one can expect little or nothing more than rote pushing of buttons (not showing, for example, critical thinking, insight, or leadership)."
      ],
      "id": "en-button_pusher-en-noun-wtR5NFjL",
      "links": [
        [
          "manufacturing",
          "manufacturing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ],
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "low-skilled",
          "low-skilled"
        ],
        [
          "unskilled",
          "unskilled"
        ],
        [
          "rote",
          "rote#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "critical thinking",
          "critical thinking"
        ],
        [
          "insight",
          "insight"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(manufacturing, business, often mildly derogatory) A low-skilled or unskilled worker: someone from whom one can expect little or nothing more than rote pushing of buttons (not showing, for example, critical thinking, insight, or leadership)."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "buttonpusher"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "button-pusher"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "mildly",
        "often"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "manufacturing"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "button pusher"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "In the provoker sense, by a metaphor in which the recipient's emotions can be manipulated on command as if prompted by literal control buttons. Thus also tangentially comparable with a puppet master who is pulling the strings to manipulate puppets.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "button pushers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "button pusher (plural button pushers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "push-button"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: gadfly, goader, provocateur, provoker"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              72,
              85
            ]
          ],
          "text": "When you're dealing with Tom, you need to keep in mind that he can be a button pusher sometimes. Stay cool, and don't reinforce that behavior.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pushes someone else's buttons",
          "push someone's buttons"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Someone who pushes someone else's buttons: someone who goads, annoys, provokes, etc."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "buttonpusher"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "button-pusher"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Business",
        "en:Manufacturing"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              107,
              120
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Bill has been working here for 4 years and is looking for ways to upskill. He says he doesn't want to be a button pusher forever.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A low-skilled or unskilled worker: someone from whom one can expect little or nothing more than rote pushing of buttons (not showing, for example, critical thinking, insight, or leadership)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "manufacturing",
          "manufacturing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ],
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "low-skilled",
          "low-skilled"
        ],
        [
          "unskilled",
          "unskilled"
        ],
        [
          "rote",
          "rote#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "critical thinking",
          "critical thinking"
        ],
        [
          "insight",
          "insight"
        ],
        [
          "leadership",
          "leadership"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(manufacturing, business, often mildly derogatory) A low-skilled or unskilled worker: someone from whom one can expect little or nothing more than rote pushing of buttons (not showing, for example, critical thinking, insight, or leadership)."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "buttonpusher"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "alternative"
          ],
          "word": "button-pusher"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "mildly",
        "often"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "manufacturing"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "button pusher"
}

Download raw JSONL data for button pusher meaning in English (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-07-20 using wiktextract (ed078bd and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.