sew buttons
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- (in response to "so"): sew buttons on your underwear
Etymology edit
Based on the fact that so and sew are homophonous.
Interjection edit
- (idiomatic, humorous, slightly dated) used in response to someone asking "so?"
- 2018, Lisa Super, chapter 13, in So Glad to Meet You:
- “Ah. So?” “Sew buttons.” “What was it like? I don't know.
- 2016, Rita Lakin, Getting Old is Criminal:
- “That's what my mother used to say when we kept saying 'so.'” At Jack's puzzled look I bat my hand at him. “Don't bother trying to get it. It's a non sequitur.” “Oh. So. Sew buttons. I get it.”
- 2012, Wendy Wunder, The Probability of Miracles, Penguin Random House Children's UK:
- “So.” “Sew buttons.” That phrase always made Cam laugh. Her grandmother was the only one who still used it because she was probably the only person who still actually sewed buttons.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see sew, button.