press the right button

press the right button

or

press the right buttons

If someone presses the right button or presses the right buttons, they skilfully do the things to have the effect they want. It is hard to know if you're pressing the right buttons because one reader's fantasy is another reader's yawn. Note: You can also say that someone presses all the right buttons. In what it describes as a well-judged performance, the newspaper says he pressed all the right buttons to please the representatives. Note: Verbs such as push and hit are sometimes used instead of press. In later talks with the chairman, he helped his cause by pushing all the right buttons.
See also: button, press, right
References in periodicals archive ?
It's as simple as that: press the right button, and they'll do what you want.
Opinion: Insulting Muslims - by Gwynne Dyer
After 50 trials, the rules were reversed so the participants had to press the right button if "M" was in the middle and the left if "N" was in the middle.
Brains get confused when rules change
Summary: They call it the kayamat ki raat in Uttar Pradesh, the night when you confront both your maker and those you want to make in your own image so that they press the right button on the electronic voting machine tomorrow, a sort of Doomsday night without end.
Election Night Without End
All my friend Lee had to do was press the right button but instead he played the first track on the CD, which was Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson singing The Best Things in Life are Free.
Wedded bliss for Jonathan! Theatre
I didn't want to call reception and have a 18-year-old Polish girl come, press the right button and throw me a look of pity.
Horror of hotel with no telly; NIGHT OF LIVING DREAD
All he had do was to position Galileo into the right slot and wait for the right moment to press the right button.
Star Galileo looks all set for true greatness
All played a computerized risk-taking game that repeatedly presented a choice between a cautious and a risky behaviour: press the left button and always win one cent, or press the right button and either win five cents or lose ten cents.
Brain abnormalities cause antisocial behaviour and drug abuse in boys
So, uh, if we, like, dig sports man, we just have to press the right button on the remote and we're, like, watching sports.
Sony CSV-E77 CoCoon
Where we are staying in Dubai, all I have to do is press the right button in the lift to get from our apartment to the gym and everything I need is on the doorstep,' The Daily times quoted Flintoff, as saying.
Flintoff's three-month 'push-button' rehab stint in Dubai
she looked all right spread out on the bed when she asked me to press the right button - on the remote - to take her to the Stade de France.
From Here to Eternity with Zinnemann, Zidane; TV View
And after that I will ideally press the right buttons.
Jurgen Klopp / / There was no Bayern contact says Klopp
We've all had captains who were great leaders by example, or who could press the right buttons and motivate people, or who were very good strategically and could change things around," McCall said.
McCall vents over Borthwick criticisms
We didn't make a lot of mistakes but he caught on to how things would work and how to press the right buttons to get players doing the right things.
C'MOAN KILLIE; Clark tells players what to expect from new boss
If Nev and Marc press the right buttons and the lads perform to their full potential they can win the game.
Powell has big job picking his Bangor players back up
He certainly knows how to press the right buttons with the fans but elsewhere in his chat with the French magazine, Moyes spoke of an ambition to manage abroad.
MOYES FEARS
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