tunnel
Americannoun
-
tunnels
plural
-
an underground passage.
-
a passageway, as for trains or automobiles, through or under an obstruction, as a city, mountain, river, harbor, or the like.
-
an approximately horizontal gallery or corridor in a mine.
-
the burrow of an animal.
-
Dialect. a funnel.
verb (used with object)
-
tunnels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tunneled,
past participle, past
-
tunnelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
tunneling,
present participle
-
tunnelling
present participle (especially British)
-
to construct a passageway through or under.
to tunnel a mountain.
-
to make or excavate (a tunnel or underground passage).
to tunnel a passage under a river.
-
to move or proceed by or as if by boring a tunnel.
The river tunneled its way through the mountain.
-
to pierce or hollow out, as with tunnels.
verb (used without object)
-
tunnels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tunneled,
past participle, past
-
tunnelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
tunneling,
present participle
-
tunnelling
present participle (especially British)
noun
-
an underground passageway, esp one for trains or cars that passes under a mountain, river, or a congested urban area
-
any passage or channel through or under something
-
a dialect word for funnel
-
obsolete the flue of a chimney
verb
-
(tr) to make or force (a way) through or under (something)
to tunnel a hole in the wall
to tunnel the cliff
-
(intr; foll by through, under, etc) to make or force a way (through or under something)
he tunnelled through the bracken
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
subtunnelnoun
-
tunnelernoun
-
tunnellernoun
-
tunnellikeadjective
-
untunneledadjective
-
untunnelledadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
tunnelsimple
-
tunnelssimple
-
have tunneledperfect
-
have tunnelledperfect
-
has tunneledperfect
-
has tunnelledperfect
-
am tunnelingprogressive
-
am tunnellingprogressive
-
are tunnelingprogressive
-
are tunnellingprogressive
-
is tunnelingprogressive
-
is tunnellingprogressive
-
have been tunnelingperfect progressive
-
have been tunnellingperfect progressive
-
has been tunnelingperfect progressive
-
has been tunnellingperfect progressive
Past
-
tunneledsimple
-
tunnelledsimple
-
had tunneledperfect
-
had tunnelledperfect
-
was tunnelingprogressive
-
was tunnellingprogressive
-
were tunnelingprogressive
-
were tunnellingprogressive
-
had been tunnelingperfect progressive
-
had been tunnellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tunnel
1400–50; late Middle English tonel (noun) < Middle French tonele, tonnelle funnel-shaped net, feminine of tonnel cask, diminutive of tonne tun; see -elle
Explanation
A tunnel is a passage that runs underground or through something, like a train tunnel that cuts through a mountain. Some theme parks have networks of underground tunnels so that employees can move around out of sight of visitors. Some tunnels, like New York's Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel, which connect New York City to New Jersey, are large and solid enough to drive cars through. Others are much smaller, like the tunnels small animals dig through snow or soil for safety and shelter. As a verb, tunnel means "dig a tunnel" or "force through," the way your neighborhood groundhog tunnels under your dad's vegetable garden.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There’s a long walk through a tunnel to many American gates and greeters try to arrange a car if one is available, a perk typically only guaranteed if you buy Five Star Select.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
He said emerging from the tunnel and smoke during introductions felt “surreal,” and his coach would agree.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
"That's how we showed that this core-shell-shell structure could actually function as a one-directional energy tunnel for incoming light."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
By the time they approached the tunnel, close to United's 'singing section', supporters were asking Michael Carrick and his players 'what was that?'.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
At the end of the tunnel Mr. Weiss and Mr. Gibson were waiting.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
Military analysts say that one potential legitimate use of the large payload bombs would be destroying underground tunnels and bunkers, places ordinary bombs can’t reach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Three people were rescued from deep inside tunnels days after the disaster, but there has been no confirmation of further survivors since a Chinese man was pulled out alive nearly a week ago.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
Elon Musk continues to draw investment dollars — this time for a tunneling company that just raised $3 billion so it can help “solve traffic” via expensive underground tunnels.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
Many tunnels are faster, safer and much more expensive for migrants who would otherwise face increasingly dangerous mountain and desert routes, experts said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
We come out into a brightly lit area that the three tunnels lead to.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
His best work tunneled into life’s darkest spaces to excavate ideas about our fears and obsessions, often reflected through dazzling practical effects that matched the naturalism of his greatest feature: a singularly expressive, malleable face.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
“Our estimates suggest that in 2019, 63% of nursing home profits were hidden and tunneled to related parties through inflated transfer prices,” the study says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2024
In 2021, using lidar technology, Estrada-Belli found evidence that looters had tunneled inside a seemingly royal pyramid within the city’s monumental core.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 26, 2024
The agency has assumed 12 years overall construction from 2027-2039, for the mostly tunneled Sodo-to-Ballard extension.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
Then, with closed eyes, he moved his head and tunneled under the pillow with me.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
His body was finally pulled out late on Saturday after rescuers excavated much of an adjacent hillside and then tunnelled toward the bottom of the well.
From Reuters ● Feb. 7, 2022
The road narrowed and tunnelled through the lush woods.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 28, 2016
Ace fighter-plane flyer Franz von Werra successfully tunnelled out with four other prisoners, the noise of their efforts masked by a performance of the POW choir.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2015
During the construction of the dam, they tunnelled into the rock at the base of the slide and drilled hundreds of drainage holes upward into the plane of failure.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Many houses there were, chambers, halls, and passages, cut and tunnelled back into the walls upon their inner side, so that all the open circle was overlooked by countless windows and dark doors.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Elon Musk continues to draw investment dollars — this time for a tunneling company that just raised $3 billion so it can help “solve traffic” via expensive underground tunnels.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
The Boring Company recently closed an investment round that would value the tunneling startup at around $20 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Access to 11 countries, AES-256 encryption with WireGuard, plus extras like split tunneling and Stealth protocol.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
Researchers also identified a protein called MYO10 as critical for creating the tunneling nanotubes that allow mitochondria to move between cells.
From Science Daily ● May 24, 2026
For those unfamiliar with the mechanics of dwarf tunneling, I shall endeavor to explain them as tastefully as possible.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
"Up ahead, even now, we might run into water which would drown the people tunnelling," said Dix.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
McGoran also says that technologies such as laser-guidance systems and gyroscopes, which help machines work out their position relative to the world around them, have made tunnelling more accurate in recent years.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
They are widely seen as a pest on agricultural land because their tunnelling can damage the root systems of crops and pasture and the molehills can cause damage to machinery.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026
Using quantum "tunnelling", the electron manages to burrow through the energy barrier.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
Soft, soft, but how piercing! boring and drilling into reason, tunnelling through resolution.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
