canary

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A small, usually yellow, finch (genus Serinus), a songbird native to the Canary Islands.
2. (countable, uncountable) Any of various small birds of different countries, most of which are largely yellow in colour.
3. (countable, informal, uncountable) A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
4. (countable, slang, uncountable) An informer or snitch; a squealer.
5. (countable, uncountable) A light, slightly greenish, yellow colour.
6. (countable, slang, uncountable) A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (Nembutal).
7. (Australia, countable, informal, uncountable) A yellow sticker applied by the police to a vehicle to indicate it is unroadworthy.
8. (countable, uncountable) Any test subject, especially an inadvertent or unwilling one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.)
9. (countable, uncountable) A value placed in memory such that it will be the first data corrupted by a buffer overflow, allowing the program to identify and recover from it.
10. (countable, uncountable) A change that is tested by being rolled out first to a subset of machines or users before rolling out to all.
11. (countable, uncountable) A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands.
12. (countable, uncountable) A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
13. (UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable) A sovereign (coin).
14. (countable, uncountable) A previously-issued ticket, retained by a ticket-seller, conductor or driver and resold to a subsequent passenger as a means of defrauding the transport company.

Adj

Of a light yellow colour.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To dance nimbly (as in the canary dance).
2. (slang) To inform or snitch, to betray secrets, especially about illegal activities.
3. To test a software change by rolling out to a small set of machines or users before making it available to all.

Synonyms

canary bird

canary yellow

snitch

canary-yellow

bright yellow

snitcher

fink

informer

sneak

sneaker

stoolie

stoolpigeon

stool pigeon

songstress

sparrow

thick-billed seedeater

canary-coloured

canarian

vase

pale yellow

warbler

daffodil yellow

jar

🫙

cistern

Translations

canari

canario

Kanarienvogel

canarino

καναρίνι

canário

kanarie

canari

kanarya

Serinus spp.

canaria fringilla

passer

καναρινί

serin

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kəˈnɛəɹi/

Etymology

From French canarie, from Spanish canario, from the Latin Canariae insulae (“Canary Islands”) (Spanish Islas Canarias); from the largest island Insula Canaria (“Dog Island" or "Canine Island”), named for its dogs, from canārius (“canine”), from canis (“dog”).