Butteker, a shop, from the Italian bottega. A curious variation of this word is "butter-ken," Gypsy, bûtteka or boodika.
Butter, to (common), to praise a person too flagrantly; " to pass the butter boat," is to indulge at public dinners in laudatory toasts of the prominent or distinguished persons who are present. The phrase has its counterpart in the Scottish proverb, "Claw me and I'll claw you." From clire, to praise, and signifying "Praise me and I'll praise you." The English proverb, "Fine words butter no parsnips," took its rise in a kindred idea.
I'll butter him, trust me. Nothing comforts a poor beggar like a bit of praise when he is down.—C. Kingsley: Two Years Ago.
Butter a bet, to (old slang), to increase it by twice or thrice its first amount.
Buttered bun (old slang), a woman who, directly after cohabitation with one man, allows another to embrace her.
Butter fingers (cricketers), an epithet applied to a "fielder" who does not hold a ball which he ought to catch.
Butter flap (rhyming slang), a trap, light cart.
Butterfly (nautical), a sailor's name for a river barge.
Buttock (common), a street-walker, a common prostitute.
You jade! I'll ravish you! You buttock! I'm a justice of the peace, sirrah!—Soldier's Fortune, 1681.
The bands and the buttocks that lived there around,
Came flocking hither.
—Poor Robin, 1694.
Wi' ruefu' face an' signs o' grace,
I paid the buttock hire;
The night was dark, and through the park
I couldna but convoy her.
Robert Burns: On the Cuttie Stool.
Buttock and file (old cant), a shop lifter.
The same capacity which qualifies a mill-ben, a bridle-cull, or a buttock and file to arrive at any degree of eminence in his profession would likewise raise a man in what the world esteem a more honourable calling.—Fielding: Jonathan Wild.
Buttock and tongue (old slang), a scolding, shrewish wife.
Buttock-ball (old slang), cohabitation.
Buttock-broker (old slang), a procuress, and in society a match-making woman.
Buttocking-shop (common), a brothel. The corresponding expression in the French slang is magasin de fesses.
Button (old cant), a shilling, now a bad one. (Streets), a decoy sham purchaser.
The Cheap Johns have a man or a boy to look after the horse . . . and sometimes at a fair to hawk or act as a button (decoy) to purchase the first lot of goods put up.—H. Mayhew: London Labour and the London Poor.
Button-buster (theatrical), a really humorous low comedian, one
