sentinel
a person or thing that watches or stands as if watching: The cats were the sentinels of the house, patrolling constantly for rodents, dogs, and other invaders.
a soldier stationed as a guard to challenge all comers and prevent a surprise attack: Lincoln refused to make his home mansion a garrison during the Civil War, but plain-clothes sentinels did patrol the property
Digital Technology. tag1 (def. 9a).
Medicine/Medical. an indication or mark that a disease is present or prevalent: New viruses in the wastewater can be used as sentinels of future outbreaks.
to watch over or guard as a sentinel: This monument sentinels each soldier's grave as a shrine.
Medicine/Medical. relating to or being an indication of a disease's presence or prevalence: Pregnant women attending prenatal appointments serve as a sentinel population for the prevalence of malaria in the region.The sentinel lymph nodes are the first lymph nodes that the cancer cells reach if they spread.
Origin of sentinel
1Other words for sentinel
Other words from sentinel
- sen·ti·nel·like, adjective
- sen·ti·nel·ship, noun
- un·sen·ti·neled, adjective
- un·sen·ti·nelled, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use sentinel in a sentence
Smoke-blackened and seasoned by wind and rain they were dark blotches sentineling the shore of the big lake.
The Country Beyond | James Oliver Curwood
British Dictionary definitions for sentinel
/ (ˈsɛntɪnəl) /
a person, such as a sentry, assigned to keep guard
computing a character used to indicate the beginning or end of a particular block of information
to guard as a sentinel
to post as a sentinel
to provide with a sentinel
Origin of sentinel
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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