runnel
Americannoun
-
a small stream; brook; rivulet.
-
a small channel, as for water.
noun
Etymology
Origin of runnel
First recorded in 1570–80; run (in the sense “small stream”) + -el diminutive suffix
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.
A few rickety huts were plunked onto the mud, far from the runnels of the dropping tide.
From Washington Post
It’s outfitted with grooves known as runnels, for bicyclists to roll their tires.
From Seattle Times
All this lethal offal seeped and oozed into the ground, into the rills and runnels that flowed beneath our town, where we all drank well-water.
From New York Times
Reported the San Francisco Chronicle: “The sidewalks and runnels were strewn with the relics of a torturous month.”
From Los Angeles Times
He stared at the daubs and streaks and runnels of red, and this newest mystery, it wasn’t a pathway of light burning lines through his mind.
From Literature
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.
