From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbuttonholebut‧ton‧hole /ˈbʌtnhəʊl $ -hoʊl/ noun [countable] 1 DCa hole for a button to be put through to fasten a shirt, coat etc2 DC British English a flower you fasten to your clothes SYN boutonniere American English
Examples from the Corpus
buttonhole• He fixed the fragile blossoms in a buttonhole of his braided uniform, then leaned down and kissed the woman.• I would give him a fresh buttonhole every day to go to the university until he said he didn't like it.• There would be little chance of continuing to see flowers in militias' buttonholes.• The end result is a nice neat buttonhole, the correct size for the button.• Backstitch a little larger than required size of buttonhole, taking a stitch into each stitch of knitting.• I hope that you are all now inspired to knit jackets and cardigans galore just to practice buttonholes.• This is a small buttonhole to use with a 1 × 1 rib.• Then, buttonhole stitch into each stitch now showing, both layers together. 