TUNNEL

tunnel

(noun) a passageway through or under something, usually underground (especially one for trains or cars); “the tunnel reduced congestion at that intersection”

burrow, tunnel

(noun) a hole made by an animal, usually for shelter

tunnel

(verb) force a way through

burrow, tunnel

(verb) move through by or as by digging; “burrow through the forest”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

tunnel (plural tunnels)

An underground or underwater passage.

A passage through or under some obstacle.

A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.

(computing, networking) A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure.

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.

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

(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.

Verb

tunnel (third-person singular simple present tunnels, present participle (US) tunneling or (UK) tunnelling, simple past and past participle (US) tunneled or (UK) tunnelled)

(transitive) To make a tunnel through or under something; to burrow.

(intransitive) To dig a tunnel.

(computing, networking) To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for insecure or unsupported protocol).

(transitive, medicine) To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use.

(physics) To undergo the quantum-mechanical phenomenon where a particle penetrates through a barrier that it classically cannot surmount.

Anagrams

• nunlet, unlent

Source: Wiktionary


Tun"nel, n. . Etym: [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)

Definition: 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.

Tun"nel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tunneled ( or 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.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

25 December 2024

UNAMBIGUOUS

(adjective) having or exhibiting a single clearly defined meaning; “As a horror, apartheid...is absolutely unambiguous”- Mario Vargas Llosa


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