canary
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kəˈnɛəɹi/
ipa: /kəˈnɛəɹi/
Forms: form: canaries
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”).
Senses: glosses: A small, usually yellow, finch (genus Serinus), a songbird native to the Canary Islands.
glosses: Any of various small birds of different countries, most of which are largely yellow in colour.
glosses: A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
glosses: An informer or snitch; a squealer.
glosses: A light, slightly greenish, yellow colour.
glosses: A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (Nembutal).
examples: text: The tendency in these types of situations (as far as I can see) is that because I don't think the act itself is illegal, the police will go through your vehicle systematically loking^([sic]) for anything wrong with it, to slap a canary on it (that's slang for an unroadworthy sticker) or present you with some other fine.
ref: 1993 September 12, Jacco Zwetsloot, “Warning About Speed Traps”, in alt.folklore.urban (Usenet):
text: Yes, if the exhaust is to noisey^([sic]) they can slap a yellow canary on it, but the[n] who cares you got rid of it.
ref: 1999 January 16, Garry Lawson, “Noisy Bikes (Update)”, in aus.motorcycles (Usenet):
text: You don't have to carry a spare wheel for a car to be roadworthy, and if you *do* carry one, it doesn't have to be in a roadworthy condition *unless* you fit it [to] the car and drive on it. / If it's not and you get pinched, expect a canary...
ref: 2003 February 14, Noddy, “Spare tyres”, in aus.cars (Usenet):
glosses: A yellow sticker applied by the police to a vehicle to indicate it is unroadworthy.
glosses: Any test subject, especially an inadvertent or unwilling one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.)
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A change that is tested by being rolled out first to a subset of machines or users before rolling out to all.
examples: text: Ile to my honeſt knight ſir Iohn Falſtaffe, / And drinke Canary with him.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, […] [T]he Merrie Wiues of Windsor. […] (First Quarto), London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Arthur Ihonson, […], published 1602, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: And though the annals of the period do not show us that there was less ale drawn, or less canary called for; men got dry with the heat of polemical discussion, and drunk with a text, not the fag end of a ballad, in their mouths; and people made a sort of morality of straight hair, long faces, and sad-coloured garments.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 190:
text: Or maybe you'd accept iv a couple o' bottles of claret or canaries?
ref: 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “In Which a Liberty Is Taken with Mr. Nutter’s Name, and Mr. Dangerfield Stands at the Altar”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume II, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 234:
glosses: A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands.
examples: text: In an other corner, Mistris Minx, a marchants wife, that will eate no cherries, forsooth, but when they are at twentie shillings a pound, that lookes as simperingly as if she were besmeard, and iets it as gingerly as if she were dancing the canaries, […]
ref: 1592, Thomas Nash[e], Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Deuill. […], London: […] [John Charlewood for] Richard Ihones, […], →OCLC:
text: […] I haue ſeen a medicine / That's able to breath life into a ſtone, / Quicken a rocke, and make you dance Canari / With ſprightly fire and motion, […]
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 235, column 2:
glosses: A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
glosses: A sovereign (coin).
examples: text: She had previously been sacked ... for "selling canaries" - a practice in which drivers resell used tickets to passengers and keep the fare for themselves.
ref: 2022 October 10, Matthew Backhouse, “Bus driver accused of pocketing fares compensated”, in The New Zealand Herald^([url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bus-driver-accused-of-pocketing-fares-compensated/6LGJQIWFMEMLXONOBONVLQ7NGQ/]):
qualifier: public transport
glosses: 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.
Synonyms: sense: informant
word: informant
Hyponyms: Serinus canaria
Serinus pusillus
Serinus serinus
Derived terms: taxonomic: Crithagra donaldsoni
word: Abyssinian grosbeak canary
taxonomic: Serinus canaria
word: Atlantic canary
taxonomic: Crithagra capistratus
word: black-faced canary
taxonomic: Serinus alario
word: black-headed canary
taxonomic: Crithagra atrogularis
word: black-throated canary
taxonomic: Crithagra sulphuratus
word: brimstone canary
taxonomic: Crithagra sulphuratus
word: bully canary
taxonomic: Mohoua ochrocephala
word: bush canary
word: canary bird
word: canarybird flower
taxonomic: Tropaeolum peregrinum
word: canarybird vine
taxonomic: Dorycnium hirsutum
word: canary clover
taxonomic: Tropaeolum peregrinum
word: canary creeper
word: canary fit
english: in genus Culicicapa
translation: in genus Culicicapa
word: canary-flycatcher
alt: Devioeca papuana
word: canary flyrobin
word: canary girl
taxonomic: Phalaris canariensis
word: canary grass
word: canary in a coal mine
word: canary in the coal mine
word: canarylike
taxonomic: Tropaeolum peregrinum
word: canary nasturtium
word: canary parakeet
taxonomic: Canarypox virus
word: canarypox
word: canary release
taxonomic: Sebastes pinniger
word: canary rockfish
word: canary seed
word: canary trap
taxonomic: Melanodera melanodera
word: canary-winged finch
taxonomic: Brotogeris versicolurus
word: canary-winged parakeet
word: canarywood
word: canary wood
word: canary whitewood
word: canary yellow
taxonomic: Serinus canicollis
word: Cape canary
word: cat that ate the canary
word: cat that swallowed the canary
word: climate canary
taxonomic: Serinus canaria
word: common canary
taxonomic: Serinus alario leucolaema
word: Damara canary
taxonomic: Serinus canaria
word: domestic canary
taxonomic: Crithagra scotops
word: forest canary
word: Grand Canary
taxonomic: Crithagra spp.
word: grosbeak-canary
word: hairy canary
taxonomic: Serinus canaria
word: island canary
taxonomic: Crithagra buchanani
word: Kenya grosbeak-canary
taxonomic: Crithagra citrinipectus
word: lemon-breasted canary
word: miner's canary
word: Missouri canary
taxonomic: Crithagra donaldsoni
word: northern grosbeak-canary
taxonomic: Crithagra koliensis
word: papyrus canary
taxonomic: Crithagra leucoptera
word: protea canary
word: red factor canary
word: Rocky Mountain canary
taxonomic: Delphinapterus leucas
word: sea canary
word: sing like a canary
taxonomic: Crithagra buchanani
word: southern grosbeak-canary
word: stack canary
word: warrant canary
taxonomic: Crithagra dorsostriatus
word: white-bellied canary
taxonomic: Crithagra albogularis
word: white-throated canary
taxonomic: Serinus flavivertex
word: yellow-crowned canary
word: yellow-eyed canary
taxonomic: Crithagra mozambica
word: yellow-fronted canary