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tunnel Definition

tun·nel (tunəl)

noun

  1. Obsolete
    1. a flue
    2. a funnel
  2. a passageway, as through a mountain or under a body of water, as for automotive or rail traffic
  3. an animal's burrow
  4. 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

  1. to dig (a passage) in the form of a tunnel
  2. to make a tunnel through or under
  3. to make (one's way) by digging a tunnel

intransitive verb

  1. to make a tunnel
  2. Physics to pass through a normally impassable barrier or insulator electrons tunnel through semiconductors

tunnel Related Forms
tun·neler noun or tun·nel·ler
tunnel Synonyms

tunnel

n.

hole, burrow, underground passage, subway, tube, crawl space, crawlway, shaft, mine, pit, crosscut, drift, adit.

Tunnel Hacker Definition
A means of establishing an outbound-connection through a firewall in such a way that it is neither blocked nor monitored. If a cracker has compromised a machine on the other side of a firewall, a tunnel will allow the cracker to communicate with that machine from the Internet. More generally, a tunnel is a path established by one network to send its data via another network’s connections. Tunneling works by encapsulating a network protocol within packets carried by the second network. For example, Microsoft’s PPTP technology allows organizations to send information across a virtual private network (VPN) using the Internet as a transport medium. Tunneling is accomplished by embedding its own network protocol within the TCP/IP packets carried by the Internet.

See Also: Cracker; Encapsulation; Firewall; Internet; PPTP; TCP/IP; VPN.

Graham, R. Hacking Lexicon. [Online, 2001.] Robert Graham Website. http://www.linuxsecurity.com/resource_files/documentation/hacking-dict.html.
tunnel Usage Examples

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!
tunnel Quotes

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.

—Manchester,William Raymond

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.

—Lowell, RobertTraill Spence,Jr

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.

—Sa¤  bato, Ernesto

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.

—Levin, (Henry) Bernard

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.

—Toole,John Kennedy

It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined.

—Owen,Wilfred

Browse dictionary entries near tunnel

  1. tunnage
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  10. Tungusic
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  5. tunny
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