Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that keeps guard; a sentry.
- transitive verb To watch over as a guard.
- transitive verb To provide with a guard.
- transitive verb To post as a guard.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Watch or guard kept by a soldier stationed for the purpose at a particular place.
- noun A soldier stationed as a guard, either to challenge persons drawing near and to allow to pass only those who give a watchword, and, in the absence of this, to resist them and give an alarm, or for display or ceremony only.
- noun A sentinel-crab.
- Acting as a sentinel; watching.
- To watch over as a sentinel.
- To furnish with a sentinel or sentinels; place under the guard of sentinels.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who watches or guards; specifically (Mil.), a soldier set to guard an army, camp, or other place, from surprise, to observe the approach of danger, and give notice of it; a sentry.
- noun obsolete Watch; guard.
- noun (Zoöl.) A marine crab (
Podophthalmus vigil ) native of the Indian Ocean, remarkable for the great length of its eyestalks; -- called alsosentinel crab . - transitive verb rare, rare To watch over like a sentinel.
- transitive verb To furnish with a sentinel; to place under the guard of a sentinel or sentinels.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
sentry orguard . - noun computer science a unique
string of characters recognised by a computer program for processing in a special way; akeyword . - verb transitive To watch over as a guard.
- verb transitive To post as guard.
- verb transitive To post a guard for.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I do have a veterinarian friend who has what he calls a sentinel cat.
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I do have a veterinarian friend who has what he calls a sentinel cat.
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Lieutenant Hayward treated him with a sort of contemptuous look, and began to enter into conversation with him respecting the _Bounty_, but I called the sentinel in to take them into custody, and ordered Lieutenant
The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause and Consequences Sir John Barrow 1806
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"Oh, this isn't a co-op exactly, and it's not like, uh, the Guardian Angels, except for what they call sentinel stance, and - It's sort of like a church, except not that either.
The Boat of a Million Years Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1989
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These days, Spencer is busier than usual: she's moonlighting as a "sentinel" -- one of 80 or so doctors who sends a regular tally of fevers and raspy coughs to New York City's health department.
BIRD-FLU CHALLENGE 2007
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Complete lymph-node surgery has been the most common procedure for women whose cancer has reached certain lymph nodes called sentinel nodes.
Doctors See Chance to Reduce Mastectomies Thomas M. Burton 2011
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The biopsy procedure known as sentinel lymph node SLN dissection has been praised for averting the removal of large numbers of armpit lymph nodes during breast cancer surgery, which can lead to a painful buildup of fluid called lymphedema.
Lymph node test doesn't improve breast cancer care, study finds 2011
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Any inflation will probably show up in the property market first and can be dealt with by a simple land value tax, possibly the so-called sentinel tax triggered by upwards movements in land prices.
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It's appropriately called the sentinel node, and they found no cancer.
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It's appropriately called the sentinel node, and they found no cancer.
fuffbee commented on the word sentinel
Sworn to defend
Condemned to hell
Tempt not the blade
All fear the Sentinel
- Judas Priest
May 15, 2007