tunnel

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See also: Tunnel

English

a tunnel in Wuppertal

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.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtʌn(ə)l/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌnəl
  • Hyphenation: tun‧nel

Noun

tunnel (plural tunnels)

  1. An underground or underwater passage.
    • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 90:
      In 1865 an outfit called the East London Railway Company bought the Brunel tunnel for £800,000, and in 1869 they opened a railway through it.
  2. A passage through or under some obstacle.
    • 1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in.
    • 2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 42:
      There are more than 1,500 railway tunnels in Britain and the majority are still in use, carrying working tracks beneath Britain's most inconvenient geographic features.
  3. A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.
  4. (computing, networking) 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. (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.
  8. (figurative) Anything that resembles a tunnel.
    • 2021 October 20, Mark Rand, “S&C: a line fit for tourists... and everyone?”, in RAIL, number 942, page 43:
      Especially in the Eden Valley, trees create what is almost a green tunnel (particularly in summer).

Hyponyms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

tunnel (third-person singular simple present tunnels, present participle (UK) tunnelling or (US) tunneling, simple past and past participle (UK) tunnelled or (US) tunneled)

  1. (transitive) To make a tunnel through or under something; to burrow.
    • 1962 October, “London gets its Victoria tube”, in Modern Railways, page 258:
      The 1955 Act gave powers for compulsory acquisition of "easements", or permission to tunnel beneath dwelling houses instead of, as had previously been necessary, following approximately the course of surface roads.
    • 2019 October, Ruth Bagley tells James Abbott, “Crunch time for Heathrow western link”, in Modern Railways, page 74:
      The 6.5km route is agreed from a junction with the relief lines of the Great Western main line to the west of Slough, the new link would tunnel under the M25 to reach Heathrow's Terminal 5 station, where space has been set aside to accommodate services from the west.
  2. (intransitive) To dig a tunnel.
  3. (computing, networking) To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for an insecure or unsupported protocol).
  4. (transitive, medicine) To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use.
  5. (physics) To undergo the quantum-mechanical phenomenon where a particle penetrates through a barrier that it classically cannot surmount.

Derived terms

Terms derived from the noun or verb tunnel

Further reading

Anagrams

Danish

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

Noun

tunnel c (definite singular tunnelen or tunnellen, indefinite plural tunneler or tunneller, definite plural tunnelerne or tunnellerne)

  1. tunnel

Derived terms

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Etymology

Borrowed from English tunnel, from Middle French tonnelle.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtʏ.nəl/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: tun‧nel

Noun

tunnel m (plural tunnels, diminutive tunneltje n)

  1. tunnel

Derived terms

French

Etymology

English tunnel, itself a borrowing from French tonnelle; hence a reborrowing. Doublet of tonnelle.

Pronunciation

Noun

tunnel m (plural tunnels)

  1. tunnel

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

English tunnel.

Pronunciation

Noun

tunnel m (invariable)

  1. tunnel
    Synonyms: galleria, traforo

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

tunnel m (definite singular tunnelen, indefinite plural tunneler, definite plural tunnelene)

  1. a tunnel
  2. (soccer) nutmeg

Derived terms

References

Anagrams

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Alternative forms

Etymology

From English tunnel, Middle French tonnelle (“net”) or tonel (“cask”), diminutive of Old French tonne (“cask”), a word of uncertain origin and affiliation.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tʉˈnɛlː/, /²tʉnːɛl/

Noun

tunnel m (definite singular tunnelen, indefinite plural tunnelar, definite plural tunnelane)

  1. a tunnel
    Synonyms: holgang, holveg, jordgang
  2. (soccer) nutmeg

Derived terms

References

Swedish

Etymology

From English tunnel, from Middle French tonnelle (“net”).

Pronunciation

Noun

tunnel c

  1. tunnel
    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.

Declension

Declension of tunnel 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative tunnel tunneln tunnlar tunnlarna
Genitive tunnels tunnelns tunnlars tunnlarnas

Related terms

References

Wikious
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