| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
| a chattering or flighty, light-headed person. |
channel1 (ˈtʃænəl) ![]() | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a broad strait connecting two areas of sea |
| 2. | the bed or course of a river, stream, or canal |
| 3. | a navigable course through a body of water |
| 4. | (often plural) a means or agency of access, communication, etc: to go through official channels |
| 5. | a course into which something can be directed or moved: a new channel of thought |
| 6. | electronics |
| a. a band of radio frequencies assigned for a particular purpose, esp the broadcasting of a television signal | |
| b. a path for an electromagnetic signal: a stereo set has two channels | |
| c. a thin semiconductor layer between the source and drain of a field-effect transistor, the conductance of which is controlled by the gate voltage | |
| 7. | a tubular or trough-shaped passage for fluids |
| 8. | a groove or flute, as in the shaft of a column |
| 9. | computing |
| a. a path along which data can be transmitted between a central processing unit and one or more peripheral devices | |
| b. one of the lines along the length of a paper tape on which information can be stored in the form of punched holes | |
| 10. | short for channel iron |
| —vb , -nels, -nelling, -nelled, -nels, -neling, -neled | |
| 11. | to provide or be provided with a channel or channels; make or cut channels in (something) |
| 12. | (tr) to guide into or convey through a channel or channels: information was channelled through to them |
| 13. | to serve as a medium through whom the spirit of (a person of a former age) allegedly communicates with the living |
| 14. | (tr) to exhibit the traits of (another person) in one’s actions |
| 15. | (tr) to form a groove or flute in (a column, etc) |
| [C13: from Old French chanel, from Latin canālis pipe, groove, conduit; see | |
| 'channeller1 | |
| —n | |
Channel (ˈtʃænəl) ![]() | |
| —n | |
| the Channel short for English Channel | |
channel (chān'əl) Pronunciation Key
|
channel
n. [IRC] The basic unit of discussion on IRC. Once one joins a channel, everything one types is read by others on that channel. Channels are named with strings that begin with a `#' sign and can have topic descriptions (which are generally irrelevant to the actual subject of discussion). Some notable channels are `#initgame', `#hottub', `callahans', and `#report'. At times of international crisis, `#report' has hundreds of members, some of whom take turns listening to various news services and typing in summaries of the news, or in some cases, giving first-hand accounts of the action (e.g., Scud missile attacks in Tel Aviv during the Gulf War in 1991).(1.) The bed of the sea or of a river (Ps. 18:15; Isa. 8:7). (2.) The "chanelbone" (Job 31:22 marg.), properly "tube" or "shaft," an old term for the collar-bone.
channelling
in solid-state physics, the directionally selective penetration of crystalline solids by a beam of atoms. The effect was predicted in 1912 by the German physicist Johannes Stark but was not confirmed until 1960. The directions in which penetration is greatest characteristically are parallel to crystallographic axes, or planes, and the paths followed by the particles are called channels. For example, heavy atoms pass almost unobstructed through suitably oriented aluminum crystals, traversing distances thousands of times those achieved in nonchanneling directions. The phenomenon is useful in studies of crystal structure and in atomic, nuclear, and solid-state physics and holds promise with regard to the fabrication of semiconductors.
Learn more about channelling with a free trial on Britannica.com.