English

Noun

Canary ‎(plural Canaries)

1. (soccer) someone connected with Norwich City Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.

English

A canary bird (1)

Noun

canary ‎(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. A light, slightly greenish, yellow colour.

   canary colour:

4. A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, III. ii. 80:

     I will to my honest knight / Falstaff, and drink canary with him.

5. A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, II. i. 74:

     and make you dance canary / With sprightly fire and motion;

6. Any test subject, especially an inadvertent or unwilling one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.)
7. (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.
8. (informal) A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
9. (slang) An informer or snitch; a squealer.
10. (slang) A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (Nembutal).
11. (Australia, informal) A yellow sticker of unroadworthiness.
    • 1993 September 12, Jacco Zwetsloot, “Warning About Speed Traps”, in alt.folklore.urban, Usenet:

      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 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.

    • 1999 January 16, Garry Lawson, “Noisy Bikes (Update)”, in aus.motorcycles, 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.

    • 2016 February 14, Noddy, “Spare tyres”, in aus.cars, 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...

Hyponyms

• Serinus canaria, Serinus pusillus, Serinus serinus

Derived terms

• canary in a coal mine
• warrant canary
• stack canary

Translations

Adjective

canary ‎(comparative more canary, superlative most canary)

1. Of a light yellow colour.

Translations

Verb

canary ‎(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)
   • 1590, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, III. i. 11:

     but to jig off a tune at / the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet,

2. (slang) to inform or snitch, to betray secrets, especially about illegal activities.

Translations

Derived terms

• bush canary
• canary creeper
• canary grass
• canary in a coal mine
• canary yellow

Related terms

• serin
• yellowhead

See also

• Appendix:Colors