canary

Fetched 2026-10-26 (cache).

Synonyms: carnary, canard, lanary, panary, canara, canady, canari, conary

Antonyms: carnary, canard, lanary, panary, canara, canady, canari, conary

Related words from Datamuse; suggestions, not definitions.

Noun

{{senseid|en|bird}} A small, usually yellow, [[finch]] (genus {{taxfmt|Serinus|genus}}), a [[songbird]] native to the [[Canary Islands]].
Any of various small birds of different countries, most of which are largely yellow in colour.
{{lb|en|informal}} A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
{{lb|en|slang}} An informer or [[snitch]]; a [[squealer]].
A light, slightly [[green]]ish, [[yellow]] [[colour]].
{{lb|en|slang}} A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting [[barbiturate]] [[pentobarbital]]/[[pentobarbitone]] ([[nembutal]]).
{{lb|en|Australia|informal}} A yellow sticker applied by the police to a vehicle to indicate it is [[unroadworthy]].
Any [[test]] [[subject]], especially an [[inadvertent]] or [[unwilling]] one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.)
{{lb|en|computing}} A [[value]] placed in [[memory]] such that it will be the first [[data]] [[corrupt]]ed by a [[buffer overflow]], allowing the program to identify and recover from it.
{{lb|en|computing}} A change that is tested by being [[rolled out]] first to a subset of machines or users before rolling out to all.
{{lb|en|countable|uncountable}} A light, sweet, white [[wine]] from the Canary Islands.
A lively [[dance]], possibly of Spanish origin (also called ''canaries'').

{{lb|en|intransitive}} To [[dance]] nimbly (as in the canary dance).
{{lb|en|slang}} To [[inform]] or [[snitch]], to [[betray]] secrets, especially about [[illegal]] activities.
{{lb|en|software engineering}} To test a software change by [[rolling out]] to a small set of machines or users before making it available to all.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wiktionary dump) · cached copy, not a rewrite.