Definition Detail: Button-Down

We love to use “button-down” to describe companies as being conservative or unimaginative, but do we know what shirt part this refers to, or if it refers to one part at all? See if you know.

What part of a shirt does "button-down" typically refer to?

1. Cuffs

2. Shirt front (collar to waist)

3. No particular part

4. Collar

And the correct answer is . . . option four, collar. "Button-down" most typically refers to the buttons that hold down a collar on a shirt. Although, through misunderstanding, "button-down" has developed a secondary meaning of a shirt that has buttons from the collar to the waist, the older and standard meaning refers to the buttons on a collar.

For this reason, a better term to describe a shirt with buttons from the collar to the waist is "button-up shirt," "button-front shirt" or just "dress shirt."

Hopefully, this explanation buttons up the clearing of the confusion about "button-down."