buttonhole

He told the GMC he had done thousands of operations, but it was the first time a patient's eye had "buttonholed".

Mr Ahern was buttonholed by three-year-old Jude Kelliher but the Fianna Fail leader kept his lip buttoned and refused to be drawn about the date of the General Election.

More new patients (less than 1 year) were buttonholed than those patients in their second year of dialysis, but there were no comments to explain why this pattern emerged.

Principals buttonholed Dodge to say, "Listen, you don't understand.

More to the point, he (legitimately) buttonholed government as the "problem" a shriek that helped him take control of the very institution whose credibility he undermined.