mustard seed

mustard seed (countable and uncountable, plural mustard seeds)

1. A small, round seed of the mustard plant.
2. (figuratively) A small amount.

   Synonyms: bit, crumb; see also Thesaurus:modicum

   • 2013 February 7, Joy Williams, “The New Uncanny”, in The New York Times‎:

     Start with a mustard seed of irrelevant fact. Rutherford Hayes’s wife, Lucy, was the first American president’s wife to be referred to as the first lady.

   • 2022 August 8, Mitchell S. Jackson, “Looking for Clarence Thomas”, in Esquire‎:

     It was obvious to anybody with eyes and ears and a mustard seed of sense that Thomas had been chosen as a blunt instrument of Black oppression.

3. (firearms, also attributively) Small lead shot, usually of size No. 12, used for shooting birds and other animals at close range.

   Synonyms: dust shot, rat shot, snake shot

   • 1873 November 22, Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A., “Use of Small Shot”, in The American Sportsman, volume 3, number 8, West Meriden, Conn., page 117:

     Being myself much given to the collection of birds for scientific purposes, a line of operation, requiring, in most cases, the finest shot that can be procured, I use mustard seed habitually, and have learned, incidentally as it were, its efficacy when directed against birds which, it might be thought, could not be brought down with it.

   • 1972 May, Robert Halverson, “Punishment …Or Reward?”, in Field & Stream, volume 77, number 1, page 223:

     “ […] Much as I hated to do it, while that sow was chasing after him, I let him have it in the stern with a light load of mustard-seed shot. That combination worked!” […] The mustard-seed shot he mentions are No. 12's and the load was extremely light.

   • 2007 June 6, alv...@example.com, “Re: the downside”, in rec.knives‎ (Usenet):

     Hmmmm... you suppose if you miss, you might blow a 1+1/2" hole anyway, with that rig? :) Even #9? 22rf shot (mustard seed) is supposed to be #12, not sure what that would do either. :/

• “mustard seed”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC, page 3912, column 2.
• “mustard seed”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.