Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One that keeps guard; a sentry.
- v. To watch over as a guard.
- v. To provide with a guard.
- v. To post as a guard.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Watch or guard kept by a soldier stationed for the purpose at a particular place.
- n. 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.
- n. 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.
Wiktionary
- n. A sentry or guard.
- n. a unique string of characters recognised by a computer program for processing in a special way; a keyword.
- v. To watch over as a guard.
- v. To post as guard.
- v. To post a guard for.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. 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.
- n. Watch; guard.
- n. A marine crab (Podophthalmus vigil) native of the Indian Ocean, remarkable for the great length of its eyestalks; -- called also
sentinel crab . - v. To watch over like a sentinel.
- v. To furnish with a sentinel; to place under the guard of a sentinel or sentinels.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event
Etymologies
- French sentinelle, from Italian sentinella, probably from Old Italian sentina, vigilance, from sentire, to watch, from Latin sentīre, to feel; see sent- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“I do have a veterinarian friend who has what he calls a sentinel cat.”
“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”
“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
“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.”
“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.”
USA Today: Lymph node test doesn't improve breast cancer care, study finds
“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.”
The Guardian: Letters: Still time to bolster weak bank reforms
“Complete lymph-node surgery has been the most common procedure for women whose cancer has reached certain lymph nodes called sentinel nodes.”
The Wall Street Journal: Doctors See Chance to Reduce Mastectomies
“It's appropriately called the sentinel node, and they found no cancer.”
“That would trigger what Ambient Devices CEO David Rose calls the sentinel effect: You'd work harder to conserve so you don't look like a jackass in front of your peers.”
Wired: Clive Thompson Thinks: Desktop Orb Could Reform Energy Hogs
“But it's also what scientists call a sentinel — a species whose health (or lack thereof) can warn us about problems in the environment.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sentinel’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Violence
sucker punch, punch, bunch of fives, haymaker, bare-knuckle, punch-drunk, brawler, scrapper, hellkite, street fighter, gamecock, powerhouse and 30 more...
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Wuthering Heights List 4
Ten words used in Wuthering Heights
copious, benevolent, stupefied, obviate, vapid, melancholy, discerned, obscurely, tenacious, sentinel
fuffbee Sworn to defend
Condemned to hell
Tempt not the blade
All fear the Sentinel
- Judas Priest May 15, 2007