channel
/ˈt͡ʃeə̯nəl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms channels channeling channelling channeled channelled the Channel
- noun The hollow bed of running waters; (also) the bed of the sea or other body of water. “The water coming out of the waterwheel created a standing wave in the channel.”
- noun The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water. “A channel was dredged to allow ocean-going vessels to reach the city.”
- noun The navigable part of a river. “We were careful to keep our boat in the channel.”
- noun A narrow body of water between two land masses. “The English Channel lies between France and England.”
- noun Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting. “The news was conveyed to us by different channels.”
- noun (biochemistry) An ion channel: pore-forming proteins located in a cell membrane that allow specific ions to pass through.
- noun A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
- noun (construction, mechanical engineering) A structural member with a cross section shaped like a squared-off letter C.
- verb (transitive) To make or cut a channel or groove in.
- verb (transitive) To direct or guide along a desired course. “We will channel the traffic to the left with these cones.”
- verb (transitive, of a spirit, as of a dead person) To serve as a medium for. “She was channeling the spirit of her late husband, Seth.”
- verb (transitive) To follow as a model, especially in a performance. “He was trying to channel President Reagan, but the audience wasn't buying it.”
- noun (nautical) The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains. One of the 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.
- proper noun A former village and district of Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Synonyms
passage groove C-channel side sound strait station gutter transmission channel communication channel line duct epithelial duct canal television channel TV channel distribution channel impart conduct transmit convey carry canalize canalise transfer transport channelize channelise
Etymology
From Middle English chanel (also as canel, cannel, kanel), a borrowing from Old French chanel, canel, from Latin canālis (“groove; canal; channel”). Doublet of canal.
From Middle English chanelen, from the noun (see above).
From chainwale.
Named after the Channel Islands, from where settlers once came from, in the early 18th-century. The Channel Islands are located in the English Channel, a strait (channel) separating the island of Great Britain from the coast of mainland Europe.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run.
- noun The deeper part of a river, harbor, strait, etc., where the main current flows, or which affords the best and safest passage for vessels.
- verb To form a channel in; to cut or wear a channel or channels in; to groove.
- verb To course through or over, as in a channel. Cowper.
Etymology [OE. chanel, canel, OF. chanel, F. chenel, fr. L. canalis. See Canal.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “channel”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details