to press the right buttons
- idiom
- Informal
:
tocar la fibra adecuada
- Whenever I’m upset, my friend always manages to press the right buttons to cheer me up.
Examples
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She knew exactly how to press the right buttons to get what she wanted from her boss.
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Politicians often try to press the right buttons to win voters’ support.
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You need to press the right buttons to get her attention.
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Did he press the right buttons during the meeting?
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Politicians often try to press the right buttons to win voters’ support.
-
She knew exactly how to press the right buttons to get what she wanted from her boss.
-
Whenever I’m upset, my friend always manages to press the right buttons to cheer me up.
Synonyms
70
4.1
Make people feel excited and ready to act
57
4.1
Cause a feeling or strong reaction in people
18
4.4
Make people feel a strong connection when it seems familiar
7
5.5
To make someone feel excited about something
2
5.8
To make a person feel a strong emotion
1
6.0
To make someone feel very excited, often suddenly
To make someone feel strong excitement or deep emotion
To strongly attract or excite someone
Antonyms
How Effective
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is a metaphorical extension of the literal idea that pressing buttons produces a response, so learners who know 'press', 'right' and 'button' can partly infer that it means eliciting a desired reaction. However, the figurative mapping from physical action to manipulating emotions/behaviour is not fully predictable without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Press the right buttons may come from the simple image of a machine: if you press the right buttons, it does exactly what you want. That's why the phrase now means 'to do or say things that make someone react the way you want'.