as in informant
a person who provides information about another's wrongdoing
a canary who was singing and giving up the names of some of the city's most notorious drug lords
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of canary
And yet the remix, featuring TikTok star Addison Rae, was the real canary in a coal mine for the whole Brat movement.
—
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2024
After the woman delivered a healthy baby boy, her symptoms led to a cancer diagnosis, and doctors theorized that the NIPT had been the canary in the coal mine: Her tumors were shedding abnormal DNA into the bloodstream, which skewed the prenatal test results.
—Byjennifer Couzin-Frankel, science.org, 4 Dec. 2024
Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.
—Jan Ellen Spiegel, Hartford Courant, 24 Dec. 2024
There is a loud warning in all of this, and Batman is sort of the canary in the coal mine.
—Mark Hughes, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for canary
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2024
After the woman delivered a healthy baby boy, her symptoms led to a cancer diagnosis, and doctors theorized that the NIPT had been the canary in the coal mine: Her tumors were shedding abnormal DNA into the bloodstream, which skewed the prenatal test results.
—Byjennifer Couzin-Frankel, science.org, 4 Dec. 2024
Cats, however, may turn out to be the canaries in the coalmines — pardon the mixed metaphor.
—Jan Ellen Spiegel, Hartford Courant, 24 Dec. 2024
There is a loud warning in all of this, and Batman is sort of the canary in the coal mine.
—Mark Hughes, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for canary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for canary
Noun
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The actual murder sounds much more like a spontaneous crime of passion than the work of a veteran hitman exacting punishment on a guy suspected of being an FBI informant.—
Sophie Brookover,
Vulture,
6 Mar. 2025
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Gledhill allegedly told the informant he was buried somewhere north of their Cottonwood Heights home, per the detention hearing.—
Toria Sheffield,
People.com,
2 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The Ukrainian soldiers began to see Russian civilians as a hindrance — or worse, as potential informers who could give away their positions.—
Ekaterina Bodyagina Nanna Heitmann,
New York Times,
12 Feb. 2025
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The arrests were part of wide-ranging Establishment attacks on the new generation of pop stars in Britain at the time, done through connivance with informers and a hostile conservative media.—
Bill Wyman,
Vulture,
30 Jan. 2025
Noun
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After a roll call where each reveals their imminent reprisal of fan-favorite Dimension 20 characters — including a Staten Island divorcee, a wisecracking pizza rat, and a drug dealer still coping from a breakup — the game begins.—
Eric Francisco,
Rolling Stone,
1 Mar. 2025
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Grissom was a baseball rat, young and versatile, sure of himself on the field and a menace in the box.—
Chad Jennings,
The Athletic,
26 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Canary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/canary. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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