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
In some parts of Sicily the gossips of St. John present each other with plates of sprouting corn, lentils, and canary seed, which have been planted forty days before the festival.
From The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer
P. Canariensis is the useful canary seed: it may be propagated from seed on any soil.
From Gardening for the Million by Alfred Pink
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 George W. (George Wilbur) Peck
Leo put a little canary seed in the grand parade of each house, and this was quite enough to rouse them from their slumbers, and induce them to exhibit themselves to the astonished visitor.
From Make or Break or, The Rich Man's Daughter by Oliver Optic
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.
