I. ˈchan ə l noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English chanel, from Old French, from Latin canalis pipe, channel — more at canal
1.
a. : the hollow bed where a natural body or stream of water runs or may run
b. : the deeper part of a moving body of water (as a river, harbor, or strait) where the main current flows or which affords the best passage
c. : a strait or narrow sea between two close land masses
the English Channel
the Mozambique Channel
d. : a means or instrumentality aiding communication or expression or commercial exchange
alongside the familiar press, radio, and film media … other channels have multiplied — E.D.Canham
e. channels plural : a fixed, accustomed, or official course of communication or transmission of information or of commercial interchange
submitting material to the Defense Department without going through prescribed … Army channels — New York Times
f. : a person through whom information is transmitted
he … appears to have been one of Beckford's channels for communication with Courtenay — Times Literary Supplement
g. : a way, course, or direction of thought or action
the accident which directed my curiosity originally into this channel — Charles Lamb
specifically : a restricted path of movement (as of traffic directed between islands at an intersection)
h. : river 4
i. : a band of frequencies of sufficient width for a single radio or television communication being as little as a few cycles per second wide for telegraphy or as great as several megacycles wide for television
j. : the mechanism providing a single path in multiple-path systems for simultaneously and separately recording or transmitting sounds from more than one source ; also : the complete system from microphone to recorder in single-path systems
2.
a. : an especially tubular enclosed passage : conduit , pipe , duct
the poison channel in a snake's fangs
b. : any of the chambers holding identical matrices in a circulating-matrix typesetting machine
3. : a long gutter, groove, or furrow: as
a. : a street or road gutter
b. : canal 4
c. : a flute in a column
d. : a groove cut along the line where rock is to be split
e. : a slanting groove cut around the edge of an outsole of a shoe on the grain surface for imbedding stitches ; also : one of two parallel grooves cut around the edge of an insole on the flesh surface forming a ridge to which the welt is sewed
f. : the track for the rope in a tackle block
g. : a metal beam or strip having a U-shaped section
Synonyms: see mean
II. verb
( channeled or channelled ; channeled or channelled ; channeling or channelling ; channels )
transitive verb
1.
a. : to form, cut, or wear a channel in
spring freshets may channel the fields
the river channeled a new course
b. : to incise with a series of parallel flutes : groove
channel a chair leg
c. : to lower (an automobile body) by rebuilding with channels which fit around the frame rails — compare chop I vt 4
2. : to traverse by or as if by channels
moors channeled by pastoral valleys
3.
a. : to send or convey through or as if through a channel
channel materials and labor into housing
specifically : to direct through or into a fixed or official course
b. : to direct (feelings or human drives) into particular channels of behavior or action
channel the aggressive impulses of adolescents into sports activity
4. : to confine in or as if in a channel
troops channeled in a narrow road with blocks at either end
5. : to shape or stamp (as a metal strip) into a form having a U-shaped section
intransitive verb
1. : to move in or as if in a channel
the molten metal channels into a belt of troughs
2. : to have a channel cut in
gear lubricants may congeal and channel in cold weather
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: alteration of chainwale
: one of the flat ledges of heavy plank or metal to which the chain plates are fastened and which are bolted edgewise to the outside of a ship, serving to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks
IV. adjective
Etymology: channel (I)
: channeled
channel molding
V. noun
1. : a path along which information passes or an area (as of magnetic tape) on which it is stored
2. : a transition passage in jazz : bridge
3. : gutter 2f
4. : one who conveys thoughts or energy from a source believed to be outside one's body or conscious mind ; specifically : one who speaks for a nonphysical being (as while in a trance) — compare medium 7 in the Dict
5. : a passage created in a selectively permeable membrane by a conformational change in membrane proteins
an inflow of sodium ions through the cell's sodium channels
— see calcium channel blocker herein
VI. transitive verb
: to serve as a channel or intermediary for
gets $15 … for channeling the archangel Gabriel — Otto Friedrich
• channeler noun