Sentinel

//ˈsɛn.tɪ.nəl// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A place in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Maricopa County, Arizona.
  2. 2
    A place in the United States:; A ghost town in Fresno County, California.
  3. 3
    A place in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Polk County, Missouri.
  4. 4
    A place in the United States:; A town in Washita County, Oklahoma.
Noun
  1. 1
    A sentry, watch, or guard.

    "They promised faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance."

  2. 2
    a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event wordnet
  3. 3
    A private soldier. obsolete

    "“I will not permit the poorest centinel to be treated with injustice.”"

  4. 4
    A unique value recognised by a computer program for processing in a special way, or marking the end of a set of data.

    "The <xmp> tag is a sentinel that suspends web-page processing and displays the subsequent text literally"

  5. 5
    A sentinel crab.
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  1. 6
    A sign of a health risk (e.g. a disease, an adverse effect). attributive

    "sentinel animals can be used to explore endemic diseases."

Verb
  1. 1
    To watch over as a guard. transitive

    "He sentineled the north wall."

  2. 2
    To post a guard for. transitive

    "He sentineled the north wall with just one man."

Etymology

Etymology 1

1570s, from Middle French sentinelle, from Old Italian sentinella (perhaps via a notion of "perceive, watch", compare Italian sentire (“to feel, hear, smell”)), from Latin sentiō (“feel, perceive by the senses”). See sense, sentient.

Etymology 2

1570s, from Middle French sentinelle, from Old Italian sentinella (perhaps via a notion of "perceive, watch", compare Italian sentire (“to feel, hear, smell”)), from Latin sentiō (“feel, perceive by the senses”). See sense, sentient.

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