# canary

Pronunciation: say "kuh-NAIR-ee" /kəˈnɛəɹi/

## Noun

1. A small finch of the genus Serinus, native to the Canary Islands, that is usually yellow and known for its song.
   - Simple: A small songbird, usually yellow, that first came from the Canary Islands.
   - _The canary in the hallway cage trilled whenever someone ran the faucet._
   - _Breeders bring their best canaries to the regional bird show every spring._
2. Anyone or anything used as a test subject, especially without knowing it or against its will.
   - Simple: Someone or something used to try out a thing first, often without choosing to be.
   - _Early buyers of the car ended up as unwitting canaries for its faulty brakes._
   - _The first class to use the untested curriculum served as a canary, though no one had asked the parents._
3. A person who informs on others by giving away their secrets. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A person who tells on others and gives away their secrets.
   - _The detectives had a canary inside the crew who fed them every detail of the job._
   - _Prison is a dangerous place for canaries once word gets around._
4. A light yellow color with a slight greenish tinge.
   - Simple: A light yellow color with a little bit of green in it.
   - _The designer paired canary with navy for the spring collection._
   - _The old farmhouse was painted a pale canary with white trim._
7. Any of various small birds found in different countries, most of them largely yellow.
   - Simple: Any of several small birds from different countries, most of them mostly yellow.
   - _Every summer, wild canaries strip the thistle seeds along the fence line._
   - _The guide pointed out two kinds of canary on the savanna, neither of them the familiar cage bird._
8. A change that is tested by releasing it first to a subset of machines or users before rolling it out to all of them.
   - Simple: A change tried first on a few computers or users before everyone gets it.
   - _The new search feature went out as a canary to one data center before the global launch._
   - _Error rates on the canary doubled within an hour, so engineers rolled it back._
10. A value placed in memory so that a buffer overflow will corrupt it first, letting the program detect the overflow and recover.
   - Simple: A test value a program puts in memory so it can notice when data spills over and fix the problem.
   - _The compiler inserts a random canary between the local buffers and the return address on the stack._
   - _Because the canary had been overwritten, the server caught the overflow and shut the request down before any damage was done._
11. A female singer, typically a soprano or a coloratura singer. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A woman who sings, especially one with a very high voice.
   - _The bandleader fired his canary after she missed two shows in a row._
   - _Opera houses across the country were competing for the little canary whose high notes stopped the show._
12. A white wine from the Canary Islands, light in body and sweet in taste.
   - Simple: A light, sweet white wine made on the Canary Islands.
   - _He ordered a bottle of canary and two glasses, and the talk went on until midnight._
   - _The merchant's cellar held claret, port and a dozen casks of canary._
13. A capsule, usually yellow, of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital (Nembutal). *(slang)*
   - Simple: A capsule, usually yellow, of a strong sleeping drug called pentobarbital.
   - _The dealer was arrested with two hundred canaries in a shoebox._
   - _A single canary was found on the floor beside the bed._
14. A yellow sticker that police attach to a vehicle to show that it is unroadworthy. *(colloquial, Australia)*
   - Simple: A yellow sticker police put on a car to show it is not safe to drive.
   - _Ride around with an exhaust that loud and they'll slap a canary on your bike._
   - _Half the cars at the roadside check ended up with canaries on their windscreens._
15. A quick, spirited dance whose origins are uncertain but may be Spanish.
   - Simple: A fast, lively dance that may have come from Spain.
   - _The early-music group closed the concert with a canary, and its quick leaping steps drew loud applause._
   - _Dancing masters taught the canary to young courtiers along with slower, statelier dances._
17. A ticket already issued once, kept by a ticket seller, conductor, or driver and resold to a later passenger to defraud the transport company.
   - Simple: A used ticket that a driver or ticket seller keeps and sells again to a new passenger, cheating the transport company.
   - _The audit found that the conductor had been selling canaries on the late train and pocketing the fares._
   - _When the inspector checked her ticket, he realized it was a canary, issued to another rider earlier that morning._

## Adjective

5. Light yellow in color.
   - Simple: Having a light yellow color.
   - _He showed up in a canary sweater that no one could miss._
   - _A canary convertible was parked outside the diner._

## Verb

6. To inform on others by betraying their secrets, especially about illegal activities. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To tell someone's secrets, especially about crimes, to the police or others.
   - _Facing twenty years, the driver decided to canary and gave up the names of everyone involved._
   - _Someone in the warehouse had been canarying to the inspectors for months._
9. In software, to release a change first to a small group of machines or users, checking it before rolling it out to everyone.
   - Simple: To try out a new software change on a few computers or users before giving it to everyone.
   - _Always canary configuration changes before pushing them to every region._
   - _After canarying the update to two percent of users, the team saw no new errors._
16. To dance nimbly, in the manner of the canary dance.
   - Simple: To dance with quick, light steps, as in an old dance called the canary.

## Noun

18. A sovereign, the British coin. *(obsolete, UK)*
   - Simple: A British coin called a sovereign.
   - _The bookmaker counted out five canaries and pushed them across the table._
   - _A canary in his pocket was more than the stable boy earned in a month._

## Origin

From French canarie, from Spanish canario, from Latin Canariae insulae ("Canary Islands"). The largest island, Insula Canaria ("Dog Island"), was named for its dogs, from canārius ("canine"), from canis ("dog").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/canary (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).