Sentinel

Pronunciation

Origin

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

Full definition of sentinel

Noun

1. A sentry or guard.
• 1719- Daniel Defoe, 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.
• Macaulaythe sentinels who paced the ramparts
2. (computer science) a unique string of characters recognised by a computer program for processing in a special way; a keyword.The <nowiki> tag is a sentinel that suspends web-page processing and displays the subsequent text literally.
3. Watch; guard.
• Francis Baconthat princes do keep due sentinel
4. A sentinel crab.

Verb

1. (transitive) To watch over as a guard.He sentineled the north wall.
2. (transitive) To post as guard.He sentineled him on the north wall.
3. (transitive) To post a guard for.He sentineled the north wall with just one man.