mustard

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A pungent condiment or spice made from the ground seeds of the mustard plant, prepared as a powder or paste.

   He stirred a spoonful of mustard into the salad dressing.

   Strong mustard cleared his sinuses with a single bite.

   Note

   Grammatically it is usually a mass noun: a spoonful of mustard, mustard and toast. It takes a plural when kinds are meant, so a shop can stock a dozen mustards. A style is named by a word placed in front, as in Dijon mustard.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A plant of the genus Brassica or related genera, especially Sinapis alba, bearing yellow flowers and slender, linear seed pods.

   Like a wild cousin of cabbage and broccoli.

   Yellow fields of mustard bloomed across the hillside in spring.

   The mustard in the garden had bolted and gone to seed.

   Note

   The name comes through Middle English from Old French moustarde, built on moust, "must", from Latin mustum. Its relatives run across northern Europe, as Dutch mosterd and Icelandic mustarður. In botany it is a loose label that covers several Brassica species and related genera rather than one plant. Senvy is another name for the same plant.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A dark yellow color, like that of prepared mustard.

   His tie was a deep mustard that matched the autumn leaves.

   The designer paired charcoal gray with a rich mustard throughout the room.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a dark yellow color, resembling the condiment.

   She wore a mustard sweater over a white shirt.

   The vintage sofa was mustard with worn wooden arms.

   Note

   The adjective does not grade, so nothing is "more mustard" than something else. Shades are set with a modifier instead, as in the warm mustard walls Cincinnati Magazine described in 2007. Used before a noun it is the adjective; standing alone as a name for a shade it is the color noun.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The edible leaves of the mustard plant, served as a peppery salad green.

   The salad combined arugula, spinach, and peppery mustard.

   Farmers harvest mustard young, when the leaves are tender enough to eat raw.

   Note

   Its natural home is the fixed pair mustard and cress, as in mustard and cress sandwiches. On its own, the leaf sense is easily read as the condiment. The pairing, or a word like greens or leaves, makes clear that you mean something eaten fresh rather than spread.

6. 6
   noununcountableabbreviationellipsis

   Short form of mustard gas.

   Exposure to mustard left the men with severe blisters and burned lungs.

   Shells loaded with mustard contaminated the trenches for days.

   Note

   A clipped form: drop gas and the condiment's name carries the weapon. Use it only where trenches, shells or casualties already rule out the kitchen. The full form names one compound, C₄H₈Cl₂S, the World War I blistering agent. For the wider chemical class, see the family of vesicants.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   A member of a family of blistering agents containing one or more 2-chloroethyl groups, used in chemical warfare and in cancer chemotherapy.

   Researchers found that mustard damages the DNA of dividing cells.

   Certain forms of mustard are still given to patients during chemotherapy.

   Note

   A chemist's family name rather than one substance: any vesicant carrying a 2-chloroethyl group belongs to it. The family has sulfur and nitrogen variants, and the nitrogen ones serve as alkylating agents in cancer chemotherapy. Keep it apart from the clipped name for mustard gas, which points to a single World War I agent.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   The tomalley of a crab (the soft, yellowish digestive gland) which resembles the condiment in color.

   Crab lovers prize the rich mustard tucked inside the shell.

   He spread the warm mustard from the crab onto a cracker.

   Similartomalley

9. 9
   nouncolloquialuncountable

   Energy or power put on a thrown baseball.

   The rookie added some mustard to his fastball in the late innings.

   Her throw from the outfield had real mustard behind it.

   Similarheat, zip, speed, velocity

   Note

   Pitchers and fielders talk of putting mustard on a throw, so the word measures arm strength: the zip on a fastball or a throw in from the outfield. It is colloquial dugout talk and usually uncountable. A pitch has some mustard or real mustard, never "a mustard."

10. 10
    adjectiveslang

    Excellent; very good or highly skilled.

    The band's new album is mustard from start to finish.

    As a painter he's absolutely mustard.

    Similarbrilliant, excellent, great, superb

    Note

    Slang praise that sits most comfortably after the verb. In Bernard Hare's Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew (2005), public services finishing a job within a week "was mustard." The word does not compare, so nobody is "more mustard," though absolutely can intensify it. It belongs to casual talk, not to writing that needs to sound measured.

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