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
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
The greenfinch is soon attracted by hemp seed, and all the smaller birds by canary seed.
From Wild Nature Won By Kindness by Brightwen, Elizabeth
I put these in a finger bowl, and sprinkle a few seeds of grass or canary seed on the moss and dash some water on it from the tips of my fingers.
From Ethel Morton's Enterprise by Smith, Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke)
Wheat or Canary Seed.—Wheat or canary seed can be sown in any kind of dish, the bottom of which is covered with wet moss.
From What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
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.
