Definition of "button-down" [button-down]

• Having the ends of the collar fastened down by buttons: a button-down shirt. (adjective)
• Conservative, conventional, or unimaginative: "a colorful character in the buttoned-down, dull-gray world of business” ( Newsweek). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "At 11:30, Pastor Rick takes the stage, dressed in a loose, short-sleeved button-down shirt and black cotton chinos."
• "Charlie Wilson was a big customer with an unusual order: button-down collar, French cuffs, double pockets no button and epaulettes that he would, curiously, thread his suspenders through."
• "Come August, they'll offer the company's first two ready-to-wear dress shirts: a button-down oxford in blue and white and a wide-spread collar with single button cuffs, available in 14 fabrics."