Definition of "canary"

canary

/kəˈnɛəɹi/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural canaries
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. (Australia, informal) A yellow sticker applied by the police to a vehicle to indicate it is unroadworthy.
  Quotations
  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.
  1993 September 12, Jacco Zwetsloot, “Warning About Speed Traps”, in alt.folklore.urban‎ (Usenet)
  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.
  1999 January 16, Garry Lawson, “Noisy Bikes (Update)”, in aus.motorcycles‎ (Usenet)
  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...
  2003 February 14, Noddy, “Spare tyres”, in aus.cars‎ (Usenet)
8. Any test subject, especially an inadvertent or unwilling one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.)
9. (computing) 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. (computing) 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.
  Quotations
  Ile to my honeſt knight ſir Iohn Falſtaffe, / And drinke Canary with him.
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, […] [T]he Merrie Wiues of Windsor. […] (First Quarto), London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Arthur Ihonson, […], published 1602, [Act III, scene ii]
  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.
  1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 190
  Or maybe you'd accept iv a couple o' bottles of claret or canaries?
  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, […], page 234
12. A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
  Quotations
  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, […]
  1592, Thomas Nash[e], Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Deuill. […], London: […] [John Charlewood for] Richard Ihones, […]; republished as J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Pierce Penniless’s Supplication to the Devil. […], London: […] [Frederic Shoberl, Jun.] for the Shakespeare Society, 1842, page 21
  […] 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, […]
  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, [Act II, scene i], page 235, column 2
adjective
comparative more canary, superlative most canary
1. Of a light yellow colour.
verb
third-person singular simple present canaries, present participle canarying, simple past and past participle canaried
1. (intransitive) to dance nimbly (as in the canary dance)
  Quotations
  but to jig off a tune at / the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet,
  c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i], line 11
2. (slang) to inform or snitch, to betray secrets, especially about illegal activities.
3. (computing) to test a software change by rolling out to a small set of machines or users before making it available to all.

Definition of "canary"

canary

noun

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adjective

verb

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