CANARY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does canary mean? 

• CANARY (noun)
  The noun CANARY has 4 senses:

1. someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police

2. a female singer

3. a moderate yellow with a greenish tinge

4. any of several small Old World finches

  Familiarity information: CANARY used as a noun is uncommon.

• CANARY (adjective)
  The adjective CANARY has 1 sense:

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

  Familiarity information: CANARY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CANARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

canary; fink; sneak; sneaker; snitch; snitcher; stool pigeon; stoolie; stoolpigeon

Hypernyms ("canary" is a kind of...):

betrayer; blabber; informer; rat; squealer (one who reveals confidential information in return for money)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A female singer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("canary" is a kind of...):

singer; vocaliser; vocalist; vocalizer (a person who sings)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A moderate yellow with a greenish tinge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

canary; canary yellow

Hypernyms ("canary" is a kind of...):

yellow; yellowness (yellow color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of sunflowers or ripe lemons)

Derivation:

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

Sense 4

Meaning:

Any of several small Old World finches

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

canary; canary bird

Hypernyms ("canary" is a kind of...):

finch (any of numerous small songbirds with short stout bills adapted for crushing seeds)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "canary"):

common canary; Serinus canaria (native to the Canary Islands and Azores; popular usually yellow cage bird noted for its song)

Holonyms ("canary" is a member of...):

genus Serinus; Serinus (Old World finches; e.g. canaries and serins)

• CANARY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

canary; canary-yellow

Similar:

chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)

Derivation:

canary (a moderate yellow with a greenish tinge)

 Context examples 

Georgiana would chatter nonsense to her canary bird by the hour, and take no notice of me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But Miss Clarissa giving me a look (just like a sharp canary), as requesting that I would not interrupt the oracle, I begged pardon.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A canary’s cage was hanging in the window, and its aim seems to have been to get at the bird.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A synthetic HIV vaccine based on a recombinant canary pox virus vector expressing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) glycoprotein gp160.

(HIVgP160 Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

He took her down as if she had been a canary.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Further out still lay a great merchant-ship, high ended, deep waisted, painted of a canary yellow, and towering above the fishing-boats like a swan among ducklings.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Feeling very much out of sorts herself, Jo hurried into the parlor to find Beth sobbing over Pip, the canary, who lay dead in the cage with his little claws pathetically extended, as if imploring the food for want of which he had died.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Miss Lavinia and Miss Clarissa have given their consent; and if ever canary birds were in a flutter, they are.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They were not unlike birds, altogether; having a sharp, brisk, sudden manner, and a little short, spruce way of adjusting themselves, like canaries.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Among them I remember a double set of pigs' trotters, a huge pin-cushion, half a bushel or so of apples, a pair of jet earrings, some Spanish onions, a box of dominoes, a canary bird and cage, and a leg of pickled pork.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)