Word: canary Part of Speech: noun 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”). Pronunciation: /kəˈnɛəɹi/, /kəˈnɛːɹɪj/, /kəˈneɹi/, /kəˈnɛɹi/, /kəˈneːɹi/ 1. A small, usually yellow, finch (genus Serinus), a songbird native to the Canary Islands. Labels: countable, uncountable 2. Any of various small birds of different countries, most of which are largely yellow in colour. Labels: countable, uncountable 3. A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer. Labels: countable, informal, uncountable 4. An informer or snitch; a squealer. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable 5. A light, slightly greenish, yellow colour. Labels: countable, uncountable 6. A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (nembutal). Labels: countable, slang, uncountable 7. A yellow sticker applied by the police to a vehicle to indicate it is unroadworthy. Labels: Australia, countable, informal, uncountable Example: 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. Example: 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. 8. Any test subject, especially an inadvertent or unwilling one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.) Labels: countable, uncountable 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. Labels: countable, uncountable 10. A change that is tested by being rolled out first to a subset of machines or users before rolling out to all. Labels: countable, uncountable 11. A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Ile to my honeſt knight ſir Iohn Falſtaffe, / And drinke Canary with him. Example: 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. 12. A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries). Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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, […] Example: […] 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, […] 13. A sovereign (coin). Labels: UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable 14. 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. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: She had previously been sacked ... for "selling canaries" - a practice in which drivers resell used tickets to passengers and keep the fare for themselves. 15. A prisoner or convict. Labels: UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable