push someone's buttons

Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Also, press someone's buttons . Draw a strong emotional reaction from someone, especially anger or sexual arousal. For example, My mother-in-law really knew how to push my buttons , or A good-looking redhead, she always seemed to press his buttons . This metaphoric expression transfers activating some mechanism by pushing buttons to human emotions. [ Slang ; 1920s]

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Browse