button up

verb

1. to fasten (a garment) with a button or buttons
2. informal.
   to conclude (business) satisfactorily
3. buttoned up slang.
   taciturn; silent and somewhat tense

Example Sentences

“I feel like the women in her work were always messy and more complex and they were quite flawed or as buttoned up as the rom-com heroines of Hollywood’s golden age,” Kaplan says.

From Los Angeles Times

“You don’t get to be Diddy... unless the people around you were buttoned up. There was nobody around him sloppy.”

From BBC

At first, the character is "uptight, serious, buttoned up", and Dennis has to curb his natural instincts to play up to the crowd.

From BBC

Today, he is quite literally more buttoned up, wearing a proper suit jacket and pale tie - perhaps a reflection of the higher stakes of this criminal proceeding.

From BBC

“It was never particularly clear what constitutional theory undergirded the oath of office charges. I suspect the DA’s office will button up their theory and go back to the grand jury.”

From Salon

Related Words

• beat
• clinch
• complete
• cover
• crown
• eclipse
• exceed
• finish
• surpass
• wrap up