canary

Meanings

Noun

• 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 light, slightly greenish, yellow colour.
• A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands.
• A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
• 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 female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
• An informer or snitch; a squealer.
• A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (Nembutal).
• A yellow sticker of unroadworthiness.

Adjective

• 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.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• Serinus canaria, Serinus pusillus (species), Serinus serinus

Origin

• From French canarie, from Spanish canario, from the Latin Canariae insulae ("Canary Islands") (Islas Canarias); from the largest island Insula Canaria, named for its dogs, from canārius, from canis.