buttinsky

plural buttinskys · plural buttinskies · alternative buttinski

1. derogatoryinformalOne who is prone to butt in, interrupt, or get involved where they are not welcome; a busybody.First known use early 20th c.

   I wish I had never met that nosy buttinsky!

   3 more examples

   Well, all right then! If you think I'm a buttinsky, then I'll just butt in!

   1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XX, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, section I, page 252

   "Shut up, Garrett. I never," said Mr. Tallboy, extricating himself from Garrett's grasp and giving him a playful punch in the wind, "in my life, met with such a bunch of buttinskis as you are in this department. Nothing is sacred to you, not even a man's business correspondence."

   1933, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “Murder Must Advertise. Chapter 4: Remarkable Acrobatics of a Harlequin.”, in The Five Red Herrings (Suspicious Characters): And Murder Must Advertise, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, →OCLC, page 357

   It is never pleasant for a man of sensibility to find himself regarded as a buttinski and a trailing arbutus, and it was thus, I could see at a g., that Wilbert Cream was pencilling me in.

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter V, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC, page 50

   Synonyms: butterinsky, kibitzer, meddler, nosey parker, stickybeak, yenta

2. informalcommunicationsA robust portable one-piece telephone instrument with clips, used by technicians and lines staff for testing telephone circuits or making a temporary connection to a telephone line.

   Synonyms: butt set