An infinitesimally small quantity.

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1836.  I beat him out and out, quick back into the old year, and there was scarce enough left of him, after the canvass was over, to make a small grease spot.—‘Col. Crockett in Texas,’ p. 22.

2

1842.  The poor young gentleman in black was used all up to a grease spot.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Jan. 26.

3

1843.  If you was to look at me with a ship’s glass, you wouldn’t see a grease spot of it in me.—Haliburton, ‘The Attaché,’ ii. 143. (N.E.D.)

4

1845.  If it had a been one of them t’other chaps, we would a skin’d em as quick as Crockett would a coon, and then eat them alive without leaving a grease spot.—P. P. Pratt, Account of his escape: The Prophet (N.Y.), Feb. 8.

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1847.  There won’t be so much as a grease-spot left of [Gen. Scott].—Seba Smith, ‘Major Jack Downing,’ p. 302 (1860).

6

1848.  

        I thought thet gold-mines could be gut cheaper than Chiny asters,
An’ see myself acomin’ back like sixty Jacob Astor’s;
But sech idees soon melted down an’ did n’t leave a grease-spot;
I vow my holl sheer o’ the spiles would n’t come nigh a V spot.
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ No. 8.    

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1849.  Mr. Thomas thinks we have reduced the gentleman to a grease-spot; but we have only to say, in conclusion, that if he is a grease-spot, his blood be upon his own head!—Knick. Mag., xxxiv. 13 (July).

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1852.  They were told, “there will not be a grease spot left of you,” in Western phrase, if you support General Harrison.—Mr. Stanly of North Carolina, House of Repr., June 14: Cong. Globe, p. 705, App.

9

1853.  O my friends, there is no place like home, excepting Hoboken in the summer. Nay, Hoboken is a grease-spot to it.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iii. 105.

10

1867.  “If Yellow Jack gets into this here place,” said the rebel quartermaster to some of us, “it won’t leave a grease spot on yer.”—W. L. Goss, ‘The Soldier’s Story,’ p. 141 (Boston).

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