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
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
In a lot of ways, Yastrzemski is a canary in the coal mine.
—Grant Brisbee, The Athletic, 22 Nov. 2024
The songbirds, like canaries and starlings and so forth.
—Janna Levin, Quanta Magazine, 21 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for canary
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
In a lot of ways, Yastrzemski is a canary in the coal mine.
—Grant Brisbee, The Athletic, 22 Nov. 2024
The songbirds, like canaries and starlings and so forth.
—Janna Levin, Quanta Magazine, 21 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for canary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for canary
Noun
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The witness was in fact facing 30 years in another murder case and went on record as an informant for police to take years off.—
J.M. Banks,
Kansas City Star,
25 Feb. 2025
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Both the for-profit and nonprofit businesses were founded by Edward Clancy, a businessman and former political consultant who once worked as an FBI informant.—
Jeff McDonald,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
23 Feb. 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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There’s something a bit slimy and a bit dirty about a kind of rat’s tail.—
Brian Davids,
The Hollywood Reporter,
21 Feb. 2025
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Four black rats were confirmed to have H5N1 avian flu in late January in Riverside County, California, where two recent poultry outbreaks were reported, the agency said.—
Sara Moniuszko,
CBS News,
20 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Canary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/canary. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
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