 <p>I have an ugly, though simple enough (I guess) method:</p> <p>We can make a copy, then remove the dom elements we don't want to display. Then we can get the desired text.</p> <pre><code>var clone_div = $('#myDiv').clone(); clone_div.find('.btn-group').remove(); $('#result').append(clone_div.text()).append('&lt;br /&gt;'); </code></pre> <p>Here is jsfiddle. <a href="http://jsfiddle.net/Ku7FY/4/" rel="nofollow">http://jsfiddle.net/Ku7FY/4/</a></p>