tunnel
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.
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.
to make a tunnel or tunnels: to tunnel through the Alps.
Origin of tunnel
1Other words from tunnel
- tun·nel·er; especially British, tun·nel·ler, noun
- tun·nel·like, adjective
- sub·tun·nel, noun
- un·tun·neled, adjective
- un·tun·nelled, adjective
Words Nearby tunnel
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use tunnel in a sentence
After a moth was given four minutes to taste the sweet stuff, it was attracted to the new smell when sent into the tunnel 15 minutes later, even when neither the sugar water nor the visual cue of the artificial flower was present.
This moth may outsmart smog by learning to like pollution-altered aromas | Carmen Drahl | September 11, 2020 | Science NewsAt least 60% of the world’s supply comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mostly from small-scale miners using handheld tools to dig ore from pits and tunnels.
Can Tesla help solve one of the thorniest ethical problems with electric vehicles? | Tim McDonnell | September 10, 2020 | QuartzHis new model—incorporating tree forts, climbing poles, tunnels, sand areas, and water—became a prototype for playgrounds around the country.
Designing the essential and the unseen | Tate Ryan-Mosley | September 8, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewLike building underground car tunnels and sending private rockets to Mars, this Musk-backed endeavor is incredibly ambitious, but it builds on years of research into brain-machine interfaces.
Elon Musk is one step closer to connecting a computer to your brain | Rebecca Heilweil | August 28, 2020 | VoxThese tunnels, or wormholes, would offer a shortcut between two distant sites in space and time or between two different universes.
Could ripples in spacetime point to wormholes? | Emily Conover | August 24, 2020 | Science News For Students
Another crowd moved west in an apparent bid to block the Holland tunnel.
Eric Garner Protests: ‘It’s Like Vietnam’ | Abby Haglage, Caitlin Dickson, Jacob Siegel, Chris Allbritton | December 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe only catch—he never mined a thing and the tunnel led to a scenic ledge.
When the project was completed, Schmidt moved from the tunnel into town.
Over the next 36 years, he would dig a 2,087-foot tunnel that led absolutely nowhere.
After the tunnel was complete, Schmidt went about building a rail line through it.
The grass had a delightful fragrance, like new-mown hay, and was neatly wound around the tunnel, like the inside of a bird's-nest.
Davy and The Goblin | Charles E. CarrylThe south tunnel in New Street was blocked April 18, 1877, by a locomotive turning over.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham | Thomas T. Harman and Walter ShowellTo my friends ever since I have not failed to recommend the passage of the Butterley tunnel as a desirable pleasure excursion.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland | Joseph TatlowOn the Great Western line the longest is the Box tunnel, 3,123 yards in length.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham | Thomas T. Harman and Walter ShowellInstantly there rose before him the vision of a black torrent roaring through the tunnel.
Uncanny Tales | Various
British Dictionary definitions for tunnel
/ (ˈtʌnəl) /
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
(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
Origin of tunnel
1Derived forms of tunnel
- tunneller or US tunneler, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with tunnel
see light at the end of the tunnel.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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