tunnel

[tuhn-l] /ˈtʌn l/
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), tunneled, tunneling or (especially British) tunnelled, tunnelling.
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), tunneled, tunneling or (especially British) tunnelled, tunnelling.
10.
to make a tunnel or tunnels:
to tunnel through the Alps.
Origin
1400-50; late Middle English tonel (noun) < Middle French tonele, tonnelle funnel-shaped net, feminine of tonnel cask, diminutive of tonne tun; see -elle
Related forms
tunneler; especially British, tunneller, noun
tunnellike, adjective
subtunnel, noun
untunneled, adjective
untunnelled, adjective
Examples from the web for tunnels
  • They also lived in the subway and railroad tunnels in new york city.
British Dictionary definitions for tunnels

tunnel

/ˈtʌnəl/
noun
1.
an underground passageway, esp one for trains or cars that passes under a mountain, river, or a congested urban area
2.
any passage or channel through or under something
3.
a dialect word for funnel
4.
(obsolete) the flue of a chimney
verb -nels, -nelling, -nelled (US) -nels, -neling, -neled
5.
(transitive) to make or force (a way) through or under (something): to tunnel a hole in the wall, to tunnel the cliff
6.
(intransitive; foll by through, under, etc) to make or force a way (through or under something): he tunnelled through the bracken
Derived Forms
tunneller, (US) tunneler, noun
Word Origin
C15: from Old French tonel cask, from tonne tun, from Medieval Latin tonna barrel, of Celtic origin
Word Origin and History for tunnels

tunnel

n.

mid-15c., "funnel-shaped net for catching birds," from Middle French tonnelle "net," or tonel "cask," diminutive of Old French tonne "tun, cask for liquids," possibly from the same source as Old English tunne (see tun).

Sense of "tube, pipe" (1540s) developed in English 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 French (1878). The earlier native word for this was mine. Meaning "burrow of an animal" is from 1873. Tunnel vision first recorded 1949. The figurative phrase light at the end of the tunnel is attested from 1922.

v.

"excavate underground," 1795, from tunnel (n.).

tunnels in Medicine

tunnel tun·nel (tŭn'əl)
n.
A passage located through or under a barrier.

Slang definitions & phrases for tunnels

tunnel

verb

To go into hiding (1950s+ Underworld)


Idioms and Phrases with tunnels

tunnel

see: light at the end of the tunnel