channel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a path over which electrical signals can pass
    transmission channel.
    • a channel is typically what you rent from a telephone company
  2. noun a passage for water (or other fluids) to flow through
    • the fields were crossed with irrigation channels
    • gutters carried off the rainwater into a series of channels under the street
  3. noun a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record)
    groove.
  4. noun a deep and relatively narrow body of water (as in a river or a harbor or a strait linking two larger bodies) that allows the best passage for vessels
    • the ship went aground in the channel
  5. noun (often plural) a means of communication or access
    line; communication channel.
    • it must go through official channels
    • lines of communication were set up between the two firms
  6. noun a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance
    duct; canal; epithelial duct.
    • the tear duct was obstructed
    • the alimentary canal
    • poison is released through a channel in the snake's fangs
  7. noun a television station and its programs
    TV channel; television channel.
    • a satellite TV channel
    • surfing through the channels
    • they offer more than one hundred channels
  8. noun a way of selling a company's product either directly or via distributors
    distribution channel.
    • possible distribution channels are wholesalers or small retailers or retail chains or direct mailers or your own stores
  9. verb transmit or serve as the medium for transmission
    impart; carry; convey; conduct; transmit.
    • Sound carries well over water
    • The airwaves carry the sound
    • Many metals conduct heat
  10. verb direct the flow of
    canalise; canalize.
    • channel information towards a broad audience
  11. verb send from one person or place to another
    transfer; channelise; transport; transmit; channelize.
    • transmit a message

WordNet

Chan"nel noun
Etymology
OE. chanel, canel, OF. chanel, F. chenel, fr. L. canalis. See Canal.
Definitions
  1. The hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run.
  2. The deeper part of a river, harbor, strait, etc., where the main current flows, or which affords the best and safest passage for vessels.
  3. (Geog.) A strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of lands; as, the British Channel.
  4. That through which anything passes; means of passing, conveying, or transmitting; as, the news was conveyed to us by different channels.
    The veins are converging channels. Dalton.
    At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National assembly such matter as may import that body to know. Burke.
  5. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
  6. pl. Cf. Chain wales. (Naut.) Flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.
Chan"nel transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Channeled or Channelled; present participle & verbal noun Channeling, or Channelling
Definitions
  1. To form a channel in; to cut or wear a channel or channels in; to groove.
    No more shall trenching war channel her fields. Shak.
  2. To course through or over, as in a channel. Cowper.

Webster 1913