canary

Meanings

Plural: canaries

Noun

someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police
a female singer
a moderate yellow with a greenish tinge
any of several small Old World finches
A small, usually yellow, finch (genus Serinus), a songbird native to the Canary Islands.
Any of various small birds of different countries, most of which are largely yellow in colour.
A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
An informer or snitch; a squealer.
A light, slightly greenish, yellow colour.
A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (Nembutal).
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.)
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.
A change that is tested by being rolled out first to a subset of machines or users before rolling out to all.
A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands.
A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
A sovereign (coin).
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.

Adjective Satellite

having the color of a canary; of a light to moderate yellow

Adj

Of a light yellow colour.

Verb

To dance nimbly (as in the canary dance).
To inform or snitch, to betray secrets, especially about illegal activities.
To test a software change by rolling out to a small set of machines or users before making it available to all.

Origin / 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”).

Synonyms

canary bird, canary yellow, canary-yellow, fink, informant, rat out, sneak, sneaker, snitch, snitcher, stool pigeon, stoolie, stoolpigeon

Scrabble Score: 11

canary is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
canary is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
canary is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 12

canary is a valid Words With Friends word