tunnel

Meaning

Noun

1. An underground or underwater passage.
2. A passage through or under some obstacle.
3. A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.
4. A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure.
5. 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.
6. The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue.
7. 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.
8. Anything that resembles a tunnel.

Verb

1. To make a tunnel through or under something; to burrow.
2. To dig a tunnel.
3. To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for an insecure or unsupported protocol).
4. To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use.
5. To undergo the quantum-mechanical phenomenon where a particle penetrates through a barrier that it classically cannot surmount.

Hyphenated as

tun‧nel

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtʌn(ə)l/

Etymology

From Middle French tonnelle (“net”) or tonel (“cask”), diminutive of Old French tonne (“cask”), a word of uncertain origin and affiliation. Related to Old English tunne (“tun; cask; barrel”). More at tun.