tunnel

[tuhn-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 , tunnelled, tunnelling .

1. to construct a passageway through or under.

   to tunnel a mountain.

2. to make or excavate (a tunnel or underground passage).

   to tunnel a passage under a river.

3. to move or proceed by or as if by boring a tunnel.

   The river tunneled its way through the mountain.

4. to pierce or hollow out, as with tunnels.

verb (used without object)

tunneled, tunneling , tunnelled, tunnelling .

1. to make a tunnel or tunnels.

   to tunnel through the Alps.

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

1. (tr) to make or force (a way) through or under (something)

   to tunnel a hole in the wall

   to tunnel the cliff

2. (intr; foll by through, under, etc) to make or force a way (through or under something)

   he tunnelled through the bracken

Other Word Forms

• tunneler noun
• tunnellike adjective
• subtunnel noun
• untunneled adjective
• untunnelled adjective
• tunneller noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of tunnel¹

1400–50; late Middle English tonel (noun) < Middle French tonele, tonnelle funnel-shaped net, feminine of tonnel cask, diminutive of tonne tun; -elle

Word History and Origins

Origin of tunnel¹

C15: from Old French tonel cask, from tonne tun, from Medieval Latin tonna barrel, of Celtic origin

Idioms and Phrases

see light at the end of the tunnel.

Example Sentences

The airport, which is also host to a manufacturing facility for Elon Musk’s company SpaceX and was the site of a test tunnel built by the Boring Co., gives Archer a stake in Los Angeles.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“There’s remnants of what the ride became,” Hahn says, pointing to the map’s depictions of tunnels and sandy areas with hidden loot.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“I need to know where the light is at the end of the tunnel.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Channel Tunnel is an undersea tunnel linking southern England and northern France.

Read more on BBC

The children thought it all a great game; by turns they pretended they were moles in dark tunnels, or explorers charting an unmapped jungle, or Postal Tygers delivering the mail along an unfamiliar route.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• channel 
• hole 
• mine 
• pit 
• shaft 
• subway 
• underpass