Adjacent Words

Channel definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CHANNEL, n.
1. In a general sense, a passage; a place of passing or flowing; particularly, a water course.
2. The place where a river flows, including the whole breadth of the river. But more appropriately, the deeper part or hollow in which the principal current flows.
3. The deeper part of a strait, bay, or harbor, where the principal current flows, either of tide or fresh water, or which is the most convenient for the track of a ship.
4. That through which any thing passes; means of passing, conveying, or transmitting; as, the news was conveyed to us by different channels.
5. A gutter or furrow in a column.
6. An arm of the sea; a straight or narrow sea, between two continents, or between a continent and an isle; as the British or Irish channel.
7. Channels of a ship. [See Chain-wales.]
CHANNEL, v.t. To form a channel; to cut channels in; to groove; as, to channel a field or a column.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a path over which electrical signals can pass; "a channel is typically what you rent from a telephone company" [syn: channel, transmission channel]
2: a passage for water (or other fluids) to flow through; "the fields were crossed with irrigation channels"; "gutters carried off the rainwater into a series of channels under the street"
3: a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record) [syn: groove, channel]
4: a deep and relatively narrow body of water (as in a river or a harbor or a strait linking two larger bodies) that allows the best passage for vessels; "the ship went aground in the channel"
5: (often plural) a means of communication or access; "it must go through official channels"; "lines of communication were set up between the two firms" [syn: channel, communication channel, line]
6: a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance; "the tear duct was obstructed"; "the alimentary canal"; "poison is released through a channel in the snake's fangs" [syn: duct, epithelial duct, canal, channel]
7: a television station and its programs; "a satellite TV channel"; "surfing through the channels"; "they offer more than one hundred channels" [syn: channel, television channel, TV channel]
8: a way of selling a company's product either directly or via distributors; "possible distribution channels are wholesalers or small retailers or retail chains or direct mailers or your own stores" [syn: distribution channel, channel] v
1: transmit or serve as the medium for transmission; "Sound carries well over water"; "The airwaves carry the sound"; "Many metals conduct heat" [syn: impart, conduct, transmit, convey, carry, channel]
2: direct the flow of; "channel information towards a broad audience" [syn: channel, canalize, canalise]
3: send from one person or place to another; "transmit a message" [syn: transmit, transfer, transport, channel, channelize, channelise]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English chanel, from Anglo-French, from Latin canalis channel — more at canal Date: 14th century 1. a. the bed where a natural stream of water runs b. the deeper part of a river, harbor, or strait c. a strait or narrow sea between two close landmasses d. a means of communication or expression: as (1) a path along which information (as data or music) in the form of an electrical signal passes (2) plural a fixed or official course of communication <went through established military channels with his grievances> e. a way, course, or direction of thought or action <new channels of exploration> f. a band of frequencies of sufficient width for a single radio or television communication g. channeler 2. a. a usually tubular enclosed passage ; conduit b. a passage created in a selectively permeable cell membrane by a conformational change in membrane proteins; also the proteins of such a passage — compare ion channel 3. a long gutter, groove, or furrow 4. a metal bar of flattened U-shaped section II. transitive verb (-neled or -nelled; -neling or -nelling) Date: 15th century 1. a. to form, cut, or wear a channel in b. to make a groove in <channel a chair leg> 2. to convey or direct into or through a channel <channel his energy into useful work> 3. to serve as a channeler or intermediary for III. noun Etymology: alteration of chainwale, from ¹chain + ¹wale Date: 1769 one of the flat ledges of heavy plank or metal bolted edgewise to the outside of a ship to increase the spread of the shrouds

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. & v. --n. 1 a a length of water wider than a strait, joining two larger areas, esp. seas. b (the Channel) the English Channel between Britain and France. 2 a medium of communication; an agency for conveying information (through the usual channels). 3 Broadcasting a a band of frequencies used in radio and television transmission, esp. as used by a particular station. b a service or station using this. 4 the course in which anything moves; a direction. 5 a a natural or artificial hollow bed of water. b the navigable part of a waterway. 6 a tubular passage for liquid. 7 Electronics a lengthwise strip on recording tape etc. 8 a groove or a flute, esp. in a column. --v.tr. (channelled, channelling; US channeled, channeling) 1 guide, direct (channelled them through customs). 2 form channels in; groove. Etymology: ME f. OF chanel f. L canalis CANAL 2. n. Naut. any of the broad thick planks projecting horizontally from a ship's side abreast of the masts, used to widen the basis for the shrouds. Etymology: for chain-wale: cf. gunnel for gunwale

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Channel Chan"nel, n. [OE. chanel, canel, OF. chanel, F. chenel, fr. L. canalis. See Canal.] 1. The hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run. 2. The deeper part of a river, harbor, strait, etc., where the main current flows, or which affords the best and safest passage for vessels. 3. (Geog.) A strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of lands; as, the British Channel. 4. That through which anything passes; means of passing, conveying, or transmitting; as, the news was conveyed to us by different channels. The veins are converging channels. --Dalton. At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National assembly such matter as may import that body to know. --Burke. 5. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column. 6. pl. [Cf. Chain wales.] (Naut.) Flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks. Channel bar, Channel iron (Arch.), an iron bar or beam having a section resembling a flat gutter or channel. Channel bill (Zo["o]l.), a very large Australian cuckoo (Scythrops Nov[ae]hollandi[ae]. Channel goose. (Zo["o]l.) See Gannet.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Channel Chan"nel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Channeled, or Channelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Channeling, or Channelling.] 1. To form a channel in; to cut or wear a channel or channels in; to groove. No more shall trenching war channel her fields. --Shak. 2. To course through or over, as in a channel. --Cowper.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(channels, channelling, channelled) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. Note: in AM, use 'channeling', 'channeled' 1. A channel is a television station. ...the only serious current affairs programme on either channel. ...the presenter of Channel 4 News. = station N-COUNT; N-IN-NAMES 2. A channel is a band of radio waves on which radio messages can be sent and received. N-COUNT 3. If you do something through a particular channel, or particular channels, that is the system or organization that you use to achieve your aims or to communicate. The Americans recognise that the UN can be the channel for greater diplomatic activity... Moscow and the Baltic republics are re-opening channels of communication. N-COUNT: with supp, oft adj N, N for/of n 4. If you channel money or resources into something, you arrange for them to be used for that thing, rather than for a wider range of things. Jacques Delors wants a system set up to channel funds to the poor countries... VERB: V n prep 5. If you channel your energies or emotions into something, you concentrate on or do that one thing, rather than a range of things. Stephen is channelling his energies into a novel called Blue. VERB: V n into n 6. A channel is a passage along which water flows. Keep the drainage channel clear. N-COUNT 7. A channel is a route used by boats. N-COUNT 8. The Channel or the English Channel is the narrow area of water between England and France. N-PROPER: the N

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(1.) The bed of the sea or of a river (Ps. 18:15; Isa. 8:7).

(2.) The "chanelbone" (Job 31:22 marg.), properly "tube" or "shaft," an old term for the collar-bone.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

chan'-el ('aphiq (root 'aphaq, "to hold or contain," "to be strong"; compare Arabic 'afaq "to overcome" and 'afiq, "preeminent"); shibboleth (shabhal, "to go," "to go up or grow," "to flow"; compare Arabic 'asbal, "to flow," "to rain," "to put forth ears"; sabalat, "an ear of grain"; sabil, "a road," "a public fountain")): In Job 12:21; 40:18; 41:15 we have 'aphiq in the sense of "strong" (but compare 40:18, the Revised Version (British and American) "tubes" (of brass)). Elsewhere it is translated "river," "brook," "stream," "channel" or "watercourse." Shibboleth (in the dialect of Ephraim cibboleth (Jud 12:6)) means "an ear of grain" (Ge 41:5 ff; Ru 2:2; Isa 17:5) or "a flood of water" (Ps 69:2,15; Isa 27:12). In 2Sa 22:16 (compare Ps 18:15) we have: "Then the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare, By the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils." This is reminiscent of "fountains of the deep" (Ge 7:11; 8:2; Pr 8:28). It is a question how far we should attribute to these ancient writers a share in modern notions of oceanography, but the idea seems to be that of a withdrawal of the water of the ocean, and the laying bare of submarine declivities and channels such as we know to exist as the result of erosion during a previous period of elevation, when the given portion of ocean floor was dry land.

The fact that many streams of Palestine flow only during the rainy season seems to be referred to in Job 6:15; and perhaps also in Ps 126:4.

See BROOK; RIVER.

Alfred Ely Day

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Passage, duct, conduit, canal. 2. Water-course, canal. 3. Gutter, furrow, fluting, chamfer. 4. Strait, arm of the sea, narrow sea. 5. Avenue, route, way. II. v. a. Groove, flute, chamfer, cut furrows in, cut channels in.

Moby Thesaurus

EDP, access, adolescent stream, adviser, aisle, alley, amateur band, ambulatory, announcer, annunciator, aperture, approach, approaches, aqueduct, arcade, arroyo, artery, authority, avenue, band, basin, beck, bed, bit, blowhole, bottleneck, bottom, bourn, braided stream, branch, brook, brooklet, burn, canal, canalization, canalize, carry, carve, chamfer, channelize, chisel, chute, citizens band, cloister, colonnade, communicant, communication, communication explosion, communication theory, communicator, conduct, conduit, connection, convey, corridor, corrugate, coulee, course, covered way, crack, creek, crick, crimp, cut, dado, data retrieval, data storage, debouch, decoding, defile, dike, direct, ditch, door, duct, egress, electronic data processing, emunctory, encoding, engrave, enlightener, entrenchment, entropy, escape, estuary, exhaust, exit, expert witness, fairway, ferry, floodgate, floor, flowing stream, flume, flute, fluviation, ford, fosse, frequency band, fresh, freshet, funnel, furrow, gallery, gash, gill, goffer, gossipmonger, gouge, grapevine, groove, ground, guide, gully, gutter, ha-ha, incise, informant, information center, information explosion, information medium, information theory, informer, inlet, interchange, intersection, interviewee, isthmus, junction, kennel, kill, lane, lazy stream, lead, loophole, meandering stream, means, medium, midchannel, midstream, millstream, moat, monitor, mouthpiece, moving road, narrow, narrows, navigable river, neck, newsmonger, noise, notifier, ocean bottom, opening, out, outcome, outfall, outgate, outgo, outlet, overpass, pass, passage, passageway, path, pipe, pipeline, pleat, plow, police band, pore, port, portico, press, public relations officer, publisher, put through, put through channels, rabbet, race, racing stream, radio, radio channel, railroad tunnel, redundancy, reporter, rifle, river, rivulet, road, run, rundle, runlet, runnel, rut, sally port, score, scratch, sea lane, seaway, ship route, shortwave band, signal, sike, siphon, slit, sluice, source, spill stream, spiracle, spokesman, spout, standard band, steamer track, strait, streak, stream, stream action, streamlet, striate, subterranean river, sunk fence, tap, television, teller, throat, tipster, tout, traject, trajet, transmit, trench, trough, tube, tunnel, underpass, vent, ventage, venthole, vomitory, wadi, watercourse, waterway, way, way out, weir, witness, wrinkle