canary

«canary» in Mova's school dictionary: A small yellow songbird often kept as a pet — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a canary, canaries); adjective canary yellow

meaning for a pupil

1) A small yellow songbird often kept as a pet. tree →

2) A bright yellow colour (canary yellow). tree →

3) Something that gives an early warning of danger (a canary in a coal mine). tree →

sense in the lessons

In science and pets: canaries sing and come from the Canary Islands. In history and safety: miners took canaries underground; if the bird got sick, the air was dangerous, so they left. Phrase: the canary in the coal mine = an early warning sign.

examples

• Our canary sings every morning. tree →
• Canaries need clean water and seeds. tree →
• She wore a canary yellow raincoat. tree →
• Miners used canaries to detect bad gas. tree →
• Falling bee numbers are a canary in the coal mine for nature. tree →
• The cat stared at the canary in its cage. tree →

note

Plural: canaries (y to ies). The Canary Islands were named after dogs (Latin «canis»), not the birds; the birds were named after the islands.

In the corpora

• The old Magpie says "the night-air doesn't suit my throat", and a Canary calls its children to bed.
• The caravan was «shining with newness, painted a canary-yellow picked out with green, and red wheels».
• Horrid little carts—common carts—canary-coloured carts!»

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «canary» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.