tunnel
Americannoun
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an underground passage.
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a passageway, as for trains or automobiles, through or under an obstruction, as a city, mountain, river, harbor, or the like.
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an approximately horizontal gallery or corridor in a mine.
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the burrow of an animal.
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Dialect. a funnel.
verb (used with object)
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to construct a passageway through or under.
to tunnel a mountain.
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to make or excavate (a tunnel or underground passage).
to tunnel a passage under a river.
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to move or proceed by or as if by boring a tunnel.
The river tunneled its way through the mountain.
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to pierce or hollow out, as with tunnels.
verb (used without object)
noun
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an underground passageway, esp one for trains or cars that passes under a mountain, river, or a congested urban area
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any passage or channel through or under something
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a dialect word for funnel
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obsolete the flue of a chimney
verb
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(tr) to make or force (a way) through or under (something)
to tunnel a hole in the wall
to tunnel the cliff
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(intr; foll by through, under, etc) to make or force a way (through or under something)
he tunnelled through the bracken
Other Word Forms
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.
The militant group is focusing on rebuilding the military capabilities it lost during the war, including parts of its damaged tunnel infrastructure, Arab and Israeli officials have said.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 24, 2026
While Network Rail has closed the track leading up to the tunnel, it will also carry out track and infrastructure upgrades and drainage works in the Bristol and Patchway areas.
From BBC • May 22, 2026
Rather than a tunnel through space, it can be understood as two complementary components of a quantum state.
From Science Daily • May 22, 2026
Italian divers who died in the Maldives may have taken the wrong tunnel in a cave and died in a dead-end corridor, the head of the company that recovered their bodies told AFP Thursday.
From Barron's • May 21, 2026
As far as she knew, the wise old founder had never had to flee actors dressed as pirates by crawling through a dank, dark tunnel into the British Museum after hours.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
