Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) the vagina.

1691

‘The Vindication of Top-Knots and Commodes’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 123: Then silly old Fops, that kiss but like popes, / And call us Night Walkers and Faries, / Go fumble old Joan, and let us alone, / And never come near our canary’s.

(b) (also canary-bird) a mistress; a girlfriend.

1681		Otway Soldier’s Fortune IV ii: Come hither, hussy, you little canary-bird.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 21 Feb. 10/1: They Say [...] That Archie K. has got a new cage to put his little canary, Miss A., in.

(c) a prostitute.

1676		Etherege Man of Mode I i: Three quarts of canary is her business.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Nov. 765/2: [H]is admirers are rather on the fret, saying, ‘as how, the Gas lately has been too fond of the Canary Birds; and that he is none the better for it.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 23 Apr. n.p.: the whip wants to know [...] Why the Man-a-warsman did not catch the canary bird and put her under his wing.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 71: canary. A woman, sometimes a whore.

(d) (also canary-bird) a thief’s female accomplice.

1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 337/2: Sometimes a woman, called a ‘canary,’ carries the tools, and watches outside.
1899		A.C. Gunter M.S. Bradford Special 171: With this charming canary bird under my thumb.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 18/1: Canary, a woman lookout or spotter for thieves.
1940		J. Archibald ‘No Place Like Homicide’ in Popular Detective Apr. 🌐 I am desperate, and my canary is waiting over at the tavern.

(e) (US) a woman.

1886		N.O. Lantern n.p.: He acquired the art of making a canary understand that he wished to meet her on the corner at night by merely making a motion with his hands [R].
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 93: The old canary was still hunting me up with eyes ablaze with love.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 141: He put his Tag on a blonde Canary 17 Years of Age.
1938		Eve. Post (Wellington) 25 Jan. 8/8: Modern Americanisms [...] The names for girls are legion [...] ‘Canary,’ ‘Hairpin,’ ‘Sardine,’ ‘Hotsie-Totsie’ or plain ’darb’.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: a canary . . . a beautiful, glamorous girl.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 41: ‘Charlie?’ asked Eric. ‘What do you mean by “Charlie”?’ ‘Your “Charlie”,’ repeated Max. ‘Your canary.’ ‘“Canary”?’ ‘Ay, don’t you speak English? Your sheila.’.
1989		see sense 1c above.
2001		cwnews ‘Events’ in Eye on CameraWare III Apr. 🌐 There were skirts of every variety: tall drinks of water, gals with great gams, blond canaries, sweet sisters with sultry intent.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘She sure is one hot canary’.

(f) (US campus) a female student at a mixed college.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 26: canary, n. A woman student at a co-educational college.

(a) (orig. Aus.) a convict [the yellow uniforms that they wore and their being ‘caged’; poss. reinforced by earlier canary-bird n.¹ (2) although that image refers to the cage rather than the colour].

1827		P. Cunningham New South Wales II 117: Convicts of but recent migration are facetiously known by the name of canaries, by reason of the yellow plumage in which they are fledged at the period of landing.
1852		Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 24 Dec. 862/3: [I]t is their wish they should be regarded as ‘transports,’ and let society comply with the request. Let them be known hereafter as Canaries, Yellow-Greys, or ‘our people,’ as the public choose.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer I 78: Can’t you get your canaries off the track here for about a quarter of an hour, and let my mob of cattle pass?
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Nov. 1/1: G.L. was one day snipe shooting at Rottnest. Came across a convict [...] ‘Who sent you here?’ asked Leake. ‘You,’ replied the canary.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 41: A large number of synonyms for convict became current, among them canary, transport, old hand, crossbred.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 39/2: Canary. 1. (Rare) A convict.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 259: Sometimes the pressure got too much to bear, as it does with all cons, who, seeking a release from the overpowering hatred against a society that makes canaries out of human beings, let out their aggressions on each other.
1971		J. McClure Steam Pig 102: Constable! Take those two canaries and put them in separate cells.

(b) a yellow silk handkerchief, as worn by a costermonger, allegedly popularized by the British prize-fighter John Gully (1783–1863).

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 87: None can be a gilliflower who does not wear a canary or belcher fogle round his twist.

(c) a guinea; a sovereign; a gold coin.

1840		Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [advert, from UK source] [A] pair of Kicksies, built very slap, with the artful dodge, a Canary and 2 bulls.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Oct. 14/3: [T]he cost attaching to the operation is only a modest ‘canary’.
1925		Western Mail (Perth) 28 May 21/1: [from Daily Mail, London] A sovereign had a lot of slang names [...] a portrait, a yellow boy, [...] a canary, a couter, a foont, a poona [and] a bean.
1937		Nott. Eve. Post 30 Apr. 6/3: Lesser known nicknames for sovereigns [...] ‘chip’ [...] ‘canary,’ ‘nob,’ ‘old Mr Gory’ [...] and ‘shiner’.

(d) a half-sovereign (50p).

1895

Western Champion (Barcaldine) 31 Dec. 9/5: A profitable profession it seemed, too, judging from the cool way they talked of ‘John Dunns’ (£1), ‘thick ’uns’ (sovs.), ‘canarys’ (halfsovs.), ‘finn’ (£5), &c [AND].

(e) (UK prison) a prisoner who has been caught in an escape attempt.

1874

J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 53: Amongst the gangs in the quarries may be seen here and there a convict with one leg yellow and the other of a cinnamon colour, and the same as to his arms and each half of his body [...] These are known as ‘canaries,’ and are convicts who have attempted to escape.

(f) a convict’s yellow jacket.

1874

M. Clarke Term of His Natural Life (1897) 342: We can’t bring him off, if it is him, in his canaries.

(g) (US) a mule; usu. in comb. with a geographical name, e.g. Rocky Mountain canary (bird) n.

1876		‘Dan de Quille’ Big Bonanza (1947) 73: The donkey, called by everybody in that region, ‘The Washoe Canary’.
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 60: Jerry Gullen’s canary was no bird, but a donkey.
1909		(ref. to 1882) in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

(h) a form on which one signs a promise to make a donation to the Salvation Army; a charity subscription [the yellow paper used by the Salvation Army, whose colours were red and yellow (the red paper was more expensive, noted Ware); coined by their founder William Booth (1829–1912)].

1887

‘’Arry on the Jubilee’ in Punch 25 June 305/1: We’ll provide them with L.S.D., Charlie, [...] But if we supply the canaries, the toppers must let us ’ave larks.

(i) (Aus./N.Z., also canary-face) a Chinese immigrant [yellow adj. (2c)].

1898		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 14/3: A few more W. Q. slang words. . . Tobacco is ‘snout’, opium ‘twang’, a Chinaman a ‘canary’, and a blackfellow is a ‘swatser’.
1912		R.S. Tait Scotty Mac 42: What’s the matter, canary face? [AND].
1971		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Sept. 47: Australian attitudes towards the almond-eyed celestials, the chinks, chows, pongs, canaries and dinks which have so resolutely clung to the fringes of the national consciousness.

(j) (US campus) a cigarette, presumably in a yellow packet or yellow paper.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 26: canary, n. A cigarette.

(k) (US black) a mulatto girl [yellow adj. (2b)].

1944

‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

(l) (Irish) a fright, i.e. one turns yellow adj. (4)

1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 219: I nearly had a canary (with fright or shock).
2002		O’Byrne Files: Dublin Sl. Dict. 🌐 Canary, got a phr. n. Fright.

(a) (US) a chorus-singer placed in the gallery from where they urge on the rest of the audience.

1886		Referee Mar. in Ware (1909) 62/1: Chorus-singing by the canaries has long been a South London Institution.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 62/1: Canary (Music Hall, 1870). Chorus-singer amongst the public – generally in gallery. Invented by Leybourne, a comic singer, probably to give him rest between his verses, he being pulmonary. ‘Go it, canaries’, he flatteringly would say.

(b) (show business) a female singer, usu. fronting a band.

1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 38: Across the aisle sat two pet canaries from Plainfield, New Jersey. They were [...] en route to the West to join the ‘Bunch of Birds Burlesque Company’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1937		R.B. Nye ‘A Musician’s Word List’ in AS XII:1 45: canary. A woman vocalist.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 11 Mar. [synd. col.] Helen Jepson being pressured by the autografools, now that she is a Sam Goldwyn star intead of just a Metropolitan Opera canary.
1942		‘Marienne’ ‘Solid Meddlin’’ in People’s Voice (NY) 14 Mar. 33/1: That ace canary, Ella Fitzgerald.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: Some frantic canary will go into her act with the latest issue.
1956		Girl Can’t Help It [film script] You once had a great nose for finding new talent. Dug up some big canaries, but the booze got in your way.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 9: ‘My cousin “Leon” does not live in New York!’ that crazy canary confides.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 71: canary. A woman, [...] frequently but not necessarily a singer, a.k.a. chirp or thrush.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 91: The kitten’s a canary. She something, isn’t she?

(c) (UK/US/S.Afr. Und.) an informer.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 221: canary — Informer; especially, one who gives information to the police.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1946		N.Y. Times 15 Dec. SM16: Singer: an informer [...] also canary.
1952		I, Mobster 95: They’ve got plenty of trained canaries to sing any way they tell them.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 258: Is he D ’n D or is he a canary?
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 793: canary – An informer.
1976		Sutton & Linn Where The Money Was (2004) 350: The Bronx County jail, more popularly known as the Singing School because that’s where they always sent the canaries.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 71: In the underworld, a canary is another kind of ‘singer,’ i.e., an informer, a.k.a. nightingale, pigeon or rat.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Canary. An informer. From ‘to sing like a canary’.
1994		I. Welsh ‘Stoke Newington Blues’ in Acid House 37: We got the world’s first black canary chirping away twenty to the dozen next door.
2004		T. Dorsey Cadillac Beach 258: ‘What jumps into your head?’ [...] ‘Chicago overcoats, Harlem sunsets, a jorum of skee, [...] giving a canary the Broderick . . .’.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 363: Whjat we learned from the thirty-nine canaries we caged was that [...] he had indeed fallen out with Animal and Guerro.

(d) (US Und.) a loquacious person, a chatterer.

1933		C.G. Booth ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 121: ‘A swell dish you canaries handed me last night,’ the house manager said sourly.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Canary, a talkative person.

(e) a singer, irrespective of gender; also attrib.

1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 30 July 11/1: The ace canary of swing trucked to the P.A.
1939		‘Citadel Gloss.’ in AS XIV:1 Feb. 25/2: canary club, n. 1. The cadet glee club. 2. The cadet choir.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 110: Zesty-Boy [...] started writing for the top pop canaries, and made piles.