mouse button
- noun
- /maʊs ˈbʌtən/
- Let up on the mouse button, and the right image will appear on the canvas.
- the left mouse button
- the right mouse button
Examples
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Change right mouse button behavior.
Blog text (7) -
Simply press Ctrl + mouse button to view the clipboard history and choose an item to paste.
Blog text (9) -
We can click left and right mouse buttons down here as well.
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You can find this setting under Window > Selection > Action of mouse buttons and set it to Windows.
Blog text (7) -
You still have the right mouse button like you have with traditional desktop.
Blog text (17) -
When I released the mouse button, the image filled the screen, which makes it easy to see how accurately it was selected.
Academic text (2003) -
Click on the File menu, hold down the mouse button, and move your cursor to New, then to the right.
Academic text (2011) -
Context menu fires when you use the secondary mouse button on an element.
Blog text (24) -
By default, a click on the right mouse button pastes anything you've got on your clipboard to the terminal.
Blog text (7) -
To select a file, press the left mouse button and click on the item.
Synonyms
A small part you press to make a machine or app do something
A small switch you press with a finger to control a machine like a coffee maker or elevator
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a push button on a computer mouse' is directly and compositionally derived from 'mouse' (the pointing device) + 'button' (a pressable control). This is a prototypical transparent noun–noun compound that follows regular composition patterns and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Mouse button comes from the early computer device called the mouse, which looked like a small animal because it had a cord like a 'tail', and the button is the part you press. So a mouse button is the push switch on that device used to 'select' or 'activate' things on the screen.