buttoned-up

comparative more buttoned-up · superlative most buttoned-up · alternative buttoned up

1. figurativelyConservative.
2. figurativelyCarefully planned and executed.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see button up.

   A short, stout, puffed-up little man in a high pot-hat and a buttoned-up frock-coat and a chest-protector beard was sitting up behind a stump[.]

   1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 74

   1 more example

   It should be obvious by now that most of what goes on in the Bulova commercial does not depend very much on an appeal to the rational part of the mind—the “logos” of Aristotle. If it were to depend on such an appeal to the reason, it might show the same woman, but dressed sensibly in a nice buttoned-up dress and wearing her glasses.

   1989, William H[enry] Roen, “The Words of My Mouth”, in The Inward Ear: A Sermon Evaluation Method for Preachers and Hearers of the Word, Washington, D.C.: The Alban Institute, Inc., →LCCN, →OCLC, page 7