canary

Meaning

Noun

1. A small, usually yellow, finch (genus Serinus), a songbird native to the Canary Islands.
2. Any of various small birds of different countries, most of which are largely yellow in colour.
3. (informal) A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
4. (slang) An informer or snitch; a squealer.
5. A light, slightly greenish, yellow colour.
6. (slang) A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (Nembutal).
7. (informal) A yellow sticker applied by the police to a vehicle to indicate it is unroadworthy.
8. Any test subject, especially an inadvertent or unwilling one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.)
9. 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. A change that is tested by being rolled out first to a subset of machines or users before rolling out to all.
11. A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands.
12. A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
13. (obsolete,slang) A sovereign (coin).

Adj

Of a light yellow colour.

Verb

1. 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

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”).