tunnel
See also: Tunnel
English
a tunnel [1-2] 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)
- 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.
-
- A passage through or under some obstacle.
- 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit:
- 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.
-
- A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow.
- (computing, networking) A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure.
- 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.
- The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 29:
- And one great chimney, whose long tonnell thence, / The smoke forth threw
-
- (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.
- (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
- base tunnel
- running tunnel
- summit tunnel
Descendants
- → Czech: tunel
- → Danish: tunnel
- → Dutch: tunnel
- → French: tunnel
- → Romanian: tunel
- → Turkish: tünel
- → Italian: tunnel
- → Norwegian: tunnel
- → Polish: tunel
- → Portuguese: túnel
- → Serbo-Croatian: tùnēl
- → Swedish: tunnel
Translations
an underground or underwater passage
|
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)
- (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.
-
- (intransitive) To dig a tunnel.
- (computing, networking) To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for insecure or unsupported protocol).
- (transitive, medicine) To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use.
- (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
- Channel Tunnel
- cross-tunnel
- light at the end of the tunnel
- Severn Tunnel Junction
- tunnel boring machine
- Tunnel City
- tunnel head
- tunnel kiln
- tunneller
- tunnel net
- tunnel vision
- wind tunnel
Further reading
tunnel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - Tunnel (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- nunlet, unlent
Danish
Noun
tunnel c (definite singular tunnelen or tunnellen, indefinite plural tunneler or tunneller, definite plural tunnelerne or tunnellerne)
- tunnel
Derived terms
- tunnelsyn
- vindtunnel
Dutch
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)
- tunnel
Derived terms
- fietstunnel
- metrotunnel
- snelwegtunnel
- spoortunnel
- tunnelboor
- tunnelboormachine
- tunnelbouw
- tunneldeel
- voetgangerstunnel
- watertunnel
- windtunnel
French
Etymology
Borrowed from English tunnel, itself a borrowing from French tonnelle; hence a reborrowing. Doublet of tonnelle.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ty.nɛl/
audio (file)
Noun
tunnel m (plural tunnels)
- tunnel
Derived terms
- voir le bout du tunnel
Descendants
- → Romanian: tunel
- → Turkish: tünel
Further reading
- “tunnel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English tunnel.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtun.nel/
- Rhymes: -unnel
- Hyphenation: tùn‧nel
Noun
tunnel m (invariable)
- tunnel
- Synonyms: galleria, traforo
Norwegian Bokmål
Alternative forms
- tunell
Noun
tunnel m (definite singular tunnelen, indefinite plural tunneler, definite plural tunnelene)
- a tunnel
- (soccer) nutmeg
Derived terms
Terms derived from tunnel
|
|
|
References
- “tunnel” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Anagrams
- lunnet, lunten
Norwegian Nynorsk
Alternative forms
- tunell
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)
- a tunnel
- Synonyms: holgang, holveg, jordgang
- (soccer) nutmeg
Derived terms
Terms derived from tunnel
|
|
|
References
- “tunnel” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Swedish
Etymology
From English tunnel, from Middle French tonnelle (“net”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /²tɵnɛl/
Audio (tunnlar) (file)
Noun
tunnel c
- tunnel
- An underground or underwater passage.
- A passage through or under some obstacle.
- 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
- biltunnel
- järnvägstunnel (“railway tunnel”)
- tunneleffekt
- tunnelseende
- tunnla (“to tunnel”)
- tunnling
- vindtunnel (“wind tunnel”)
References
- tunnel in Svensk ordbok.