tunnel
tun·nel (tun′əl)
noun
- Obsolete
- a flue
- a funnel
- a passageway, as through a mountain or under a body of water, as for automotive or rail traffic
- an animal's burrow
- any tunnel-like passage, as one in a mine
Etymology: ME tonel, a net with wide opening and narrow end < MFr tonnelle, arbor, semicircular vault < OFr tonnel, dim. of tonne, tun
transitive verb -·neled or -·nelled, -·nel·ing or -·nel·ling
- to dig (a passage) in the form of a tunnel
- to make a tunnel through or under
- to make (one's way) by digging a tunnel
intransitive verb
- to make a tunnel
- Physics to pass through a normally impassable barrier or insulator electrons tunnel through semiconductors
tunnel
n.
See Also: Cracker; Encapsulation; Firewall; Internet; PPTP; TCP/IP; VPN.
Object
- microscopy: An extra chamber has been added for UHV scanning tunneling microscopy ( STM ).
- microscope: We now play with atoms at our will in scanning tunneling microscopes linked to immersive virtual reality systems.
- spectroscopy: The tunneling spectroscopy clearly shows the opening of a gap at the Fermi energy at the MIT.
Converse of object
- dig: Did they dig a tunnel to get in along the lines of ' Escape to Victory ' ?
- encrypt: Any traffic that passes through an encrypted tunnel or session.
- excavate: Small molehills in a line show where the mole has excavated deep tunnels.
Adjective modifier
- bored: To try and appease environmentalists, Mr Darling has agreed to fund a £ 200m bored tunnel under Stonehenge.
- underground: Habitat Badgers live in setts, a network of underground tunnels which they dig using their strong claws.
- underwater: A 230ft underwater tunnel lets visitors get up close to awesome sea creatures.
- phreatic: The obvious passage from the base of the pitch chokes in dank phreatic tunnels.
Modifies a noun
- syndrome: The charismatic Californian was troubled with carpal tunnel syndrome for the second half of the 2003 season.
- lining: A study of the effects of compensation grouting on tunnel linings has started with support from Nishimatsu Construction.
- tent: Sunncamp Family Vario 500 A quick to erect tunnel tent, giving ample space for 5 people.
- vision: Try to get people to stop thinking in tunnel vision.
Noun used with modifier
- carpal: The carpal tunnel is a small canal in the bones at the wrist.
- poly: Supplied in continuous lengths, simply purchase as many meters as required to fit your poly tunnel.
- wind: The car has never been in a wind tunnel either full size or half scale.
- polythene: The project has shown that on a small scale at least, good quality organic seed can be produced under relatively inexpensive polythene tunnels.
- carpel: This game is more challenging to your neural transmitters than punishing to your carpel tunnels.
- ssh: Your bread sucks « ssh tunnels for fun and profit · Team Laser Explosion!
Johnson approached a strongly fortified position by outflanking it, or burrowing under it, or surprising the defenders from the rear, or raining down obstacles upon them from the sky, or starving them into submission Rarely, and then only reluctantly, would he proceed directly from A to B, to him the shortest distance between two points was a tunnel.
We feel the machine slipping from our hands As if someone else were steering; If we see the light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming train.
Hab|¤a un solo t u¤ nel, oscuro y solitario: el m|¤o, el t u¤ nel en que hab|¤a transcurrido mi infancia, mi juventud, toda mi vida Yentonces, mientras yo avanzaba siempre por mi pasadizo, ella viv|¤a afuera su vida normal, la vida agitada que llevan esas gentes que viven afuera. There was only one tunnel, dark and solitary: mine, the tunnel in which I had spent my childhood, my youth, my entire life And then, while I kept moving through my passageway, she lived her normal life outside, the exciting life of people who live outside.
Baedeker is astonishingly enduring; travellers can use nineteenth-century editions with confidence, providing they take some elementary precautions. Many hotels will long since have disappeared, and the prices will be somewhat different, but if Baedeker says'On leaving the tunnel, the best view is on the right', it probably still is, unless somebody has shifted the mountain, and his descriptions of sceneryand where to go to see it at its best are still valid, as ispracticallyall of his potted history.
Her logic was a combination of half-truths and cliche¤ s, her worldviewa compound of misconceptions deriving from a history of our nation as written from the perspective of a subway tunnel.
It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Browse dictionary entries near tunnel
- tunnage
- Tunisia
- Tunis
- tuning fork
- tunicle
- tunicate
- tunica
- tunic
- Tunguska Basin
- Tungusic
- tunnel diode
- tunnel disease
- tunnel vision
- tunneling
- tunny
- tup
- Tupí
- Tupí-Guaraní
- tupelo
- tuppence
