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Tunnel - 8 dictionary results

tun⋅nel

  [tuhn-l] noun, verb, -neled, -nel⋅ing or (especially British) -nelled, -nel⋅ling.
Use Tunnel in a Sentence
–noun
1. an underground passage.
2. a passageway, as for trains or automobiles, through or under an obstruction, as a city, mountain, river, harbor, or the like.
3. an approximately horizontal gallery or corridor in a mine.
4. the burrow of an animal.
5. Dialect. a funnel.
–verb (used with object)
6. to construct a passageway through or under: to tunnel a mountain.
7. to make or excavate (a tunnel or underground passage): to tunnel a passage under a river.
8. to move or proceed by or as if by boring a tunnel: The river tunneled its way through the mountain.
9. to pierce or hollow out, as with tunnels.
–verb (used without object)
10. to make a tunnel or tunnels: to tunnel through the Alps.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME tonel (n.) < MF tonele, tonnelle funnel-shaped net, fem. of tonnel cask, dim. of tonne tun; see -elle

Related forms:
tun⋅nel⋅er; especially British, tun⋅nel⋅ler, noun
tun⋅nel⋅like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Tunnel
tun·nel   (tŭn'əl)   
n.  
  1. An underground or underwater passage.
  2. A passage through or under a barrier.
  3. Obsolete The main flue on a chimney.
v.   tun·neled or tun·nelled, tun·nel·ing or tun·nel·ling, tun·nels

v.   tr.
  1. To make a tunnel through or under.
  2. To produce, shape, or dig in the form of a tunnel.
v.   intr.
To make a tunnel.

[Middle English tonel, tubular net, from Old French tonnelle, diminutive of tonne, tun, possibly of Celtic origin.]
tun'nel·er, tun'nel·ler n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Tunnel

Tun"nel\, n. . [F. tonnelle a semicircular, wagon-headed vault, a tunnel net, an arbor, OF. also tonnel; dim. of tonne a tun; -- so named from its resemblance to a tun in shape. See Ton.]

1. A vessel with a broad mouth at one end, a pipe or tube at the other, for conveying liquor, fluids, etc., into casks, bottles, or other vessels; a funnel.

2. The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue; a funnel.

And one great chimney, whose long tunnel thence The smoke forth threw. --Spenser.

3. An artificial passage or archway for conducting canals or railroads under elevated ground, for the formation of roads under rivers or canals, and the construction of sewers, drains, and the like.

4. (Mining) A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; -- distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel.

Tunnel head (Metal.), the top of a smelting furnace where the materials are put in.

Tunnel kiln, a limekiln in which coal is burned, as distinguished from a flame kiln, in which wood or peat is used.

Tunnel net, a net with a wide mouth at one end and narrow at the other.

Tunnel pit, Tunnel shaft, a pit or shaft sunk from the top of the ground to the level of a tunnel, for drawing up the earth and stones, for ventilation, lighting, and the like.

Tunnel

Tun"nel\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tunneledor Tunnelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Tunneling or Tunnelling.]

1. To form into a tunnel, or funnel, or to form like a tunnel; as, to tunnel fibrous plants into nests. --Derham.

2. To catch in a tunnel net.

3. To make an opening, or a passageway, through or under; as, to tunnel a mountain; to tunnel a river.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : Tunnel
Spanish: túnel,
German: der Tunnel,
Japanese: トンネル
More Translations »

tunnel  (n.)
c.1440, "funnel-shaped net for catching birds," from M.Fr. tonnelle "net," or tonel "cask," dim. of O.Fr. tonne "tun, cask for liquids," possibly from the same source as O.E. tunne (see tun). Sense of "tube, pipe" (1545) developed in Eng. and led to sense of "underground passage," which is first attested 1765, about five years after the first modern tunnel was built (on the Grand Trunk Canal in England). This sense subsequently has been borrowed into Mod.Fr. (1878). The earlier native word for this was mine. Meaning "burrow of an animal" is from 1873. The verb meaning "excavate underground" is first attested 1795. Tunnel vision first recorded 1949. The fig. phrase light at the end of the tunnel is attested from 1922.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: tun·nel
Pronunciation: 't&n-&l
Function: noun
: a bodily channel —see CARPAL TUNNEL
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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tunnel tun·nel (tŭn'əl)
n.
A passage located through or under a barrier.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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tunnel

see light at the end of the tunnel.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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