tunnel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a passageway through or under something, usually underground (especially one for trains or cars)
    • the tunnel reduced congestion at that intersection
  2. noun a hole made by an animal, usually for shelter
    burrow.
  3. verb move through by or as by digging
    burrow.
    • burrow through the forest
  4. verb force a way through

WordNet

Tun"nel noun
Etymology
F. tonnelle a semicircular, wagon-headed vault, a tunnel net, an arbor, OF. also tonnel; dim. of tonne a tun; -- so named from its resemblance to a tun in shape. See Ton.
Definitions
  1. A vessel with a broad mouth at one end, a pipe or tube at the other, for conveying liquor, fluids, etc., into casks, bottles, or other vessels; a funnel.
  2. The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue; a funnel.
    And one great chimney, whose long tunnel thence The smoke forth threw. Spenser.
  3. An artificial passage or archway for conducting canals or railroads under elevated ground, for the formation of roads under rivers or canals, and the construction of sewers, drains, and the like.
  4. (Mining) A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; -- distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel.
Tun"nel transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Tunneled or Tunnelled; present participle & verbal noun Tunneling or Tunnelling
Definitions
  1. To form into a tunnel, or funnel, or to form like a tunnel; as, to tunnel fibrous plants into nests. Derham.

Webster 1913