peyote button

noun

plural peyote buttons

: a dried disk-shaped top of the peyote cactus that contains psychoactive alkaloids (such as mescaline) and causes hallucinations when ingested

Peyote, a small cactus, has been used as a religious sacrament, or "medicine" as it is commonly called, for hundreds of years in Mesoamerica. The top is cut off and dried and is sometimes referred to as a peyote button. It may be chewed, made into a tea, or ground into granular form and, with the addition of water, ingested during peyote services.

—Thomas C. Maroukis

A peyote button contains only approximately 45 mg of mescaline …

—M. Foster Olive and D. J. Triggle

Examples of peyote button in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The two thumbed fist stood for the Freak Power platform, the peyote button representing the wider drug counterculture. —Rory Feehan, SPIN, 9 Nov. 2023

Tough to gather and cumbersome to traffic, peyote buttons fell out of favor as alternatives such as psilocybin mushrooms and LSD can be grown in home basements or synthesized in small labs, respectively. —Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 23 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

peyote button

noun

: a dried disk-shaped top of the peyote cactus that contains psychoactive alkaloids (such as mescaline) and causes hallucinations when ingested

called also mescal button