buttonhole stitch
- noun
- Specialized
Examples
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Then in silk thread, I worked a buttonhole stitch around each buttonhole, covering those whip stitches and the raw edges.
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I used a buttonhole stitch to neatly finish the edges of my fabric around the buttonholes.
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To secure the patches, I employed a buttonhole stitch that provided both decoration and reinforcement.
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Her sewing technique included a buttonhole stitch for adding a decorative border to the fabric.
Synonyms
A strong decorative stitch for the edge of thick fabric to stop fraying
How Decorative
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is transparently composed from 'buttonhole' (the slit for a button) and 'stitch' (a sewn loop), so its meaning — a stitch used to finish or reinforce buttonhole edges — is directly predictable from the parts. This is a straightforward noun+noun compounding following normal English patterns and would be clear to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Buttonhole stitch comes from sewing small looped stitches right around a buttonhole, the hole for a button, to make the edge strong and look neat. Those tiny loops hold the fabric so it does not come apart, so the name now means 'a reinforcing and decorative stitch' used around buttonholes.