tunnel
Americannoun
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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.
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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
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a dialect word for funnel
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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
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subtunnelnoun
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tunnelernoun
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tunnellernoun
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tunnellikeadjective
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untunneledadjective
-
untunnelledadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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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:
Those fans then booed the players as soon as Carrick went down the tunnel.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
They resemble a glowing white tunnel, 30 feet long and 12 feet in diameter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
United's fans delivered their own verdict on the performance as Carrick disappeared down the tunnel to the dressing room.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
The campaign begins with a surprise invasion of South Korea by North Korean forces, who deploy paratroopers and infiltrate through an underground tunnel to catch South Korean and US troops off guard.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026
As he passed the giant’s lips, Jack had just enough time to make out a dark tunnel of a throat before the giant’s mouth closed, taking all the light with it.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
Soldiers cram into tunnels with a diameter of around 4 feet, sleeping in bunkers that are cut through the side of these steel tunnels, Ukrainian troops say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
Once the lava drains away, it can leave behind hollow tunnels.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Footprint tunnels have also been installed at Bere Marsh Farm in Dorset and at Pierrepont Farm and Green Farm in Surrey.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 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
In the distance, cars fly along the skyway through the colorful tunnels of light.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
“At these depths, there would not be noise and vibration,” Sheridan said, noting that Metro had tunneled in similar soil conditions at similar depths without settlement problems.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026
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
Voilà, your water wave has tunneled through a wall!
From Scientific American ● Oct. 12, 2023
And so we were shamed into following her, and climbed down the steps to find a passage tunneled through thick ice.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
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
Yet the magazine’s final moment of thumb-in-the-eye relevance—this May, when Donald Trump compared Pete Buttigieg to Alfred E. Neuman—emphasized just how deeply Mad has tunnelled its way into the culture, waiting to inspire anew.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 25, 2019
Over a century, the miners have tunnelled so deep into the earth – 2km at some points – that they have now literally undermined the town.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 2, 2018
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
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
Quantum tunneling allows particles to move between states in ways that would not be possible under ordinary classical rules.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
His tunneling firm, The Boring Company, moved to Bastrop in 2021.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 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
Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, the Boring Company, made an unusual demand of some investors in its latest funding round: If they wanted in, they had to help build the business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
He pulled himself between the ferns, tunneling in.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
Cowi's tunnelling timeline has three years for preliminary work and five years for construction.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 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
Much of the work London-Birmingham section has been completed - with more than 75% of tunnelling complete, according to HS2 Ltd.
From BBC ● May 25, 2025
"There's a big tunnelling community back home where I'm from," said Jack.
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2025
Soft, soft, but how piercing! boring and drilling into reason, tunnelling through resolution.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
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