canary seed
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of canary seed
First recorded in 1590–1600
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He went shopping for canary seed and Polly, loose in the pet shop, settled on his shoulder and said, 'Pretty boy, I love you so.'
From Time Magazine Archive
Wax-bills eat millet-seed, canary seed, and a little soaked bread and sponge-cake.
From What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
But I shall be a-practisin' my haitches, Sir," he promised me, as I went out with the canary seed which I had called to purchase—"practise 'em 'ard, I shall.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, January 29, 1919 by Various
As Biddy often declared, "it was a great saving of canary seed, to have Miss Natalie about the house."
From Natalie A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds by Vale, Ferna
A sack of canary seed, or a rubber air cushion, or a bale of cotton, beats the Boston idea all hollow, and we will leave it to anybody that knows anything.
From Peck's Sunshine Being a Collection of Articles Written for Peck's Sun, Milwaukee, Wis. - 1882 by Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
