1A length of water wider than a strait, joining two larger areas of water, especially two seas.

1. 1.1 The English Channel.
   the movement has spread across the Channel
2. 1.2 A navigable passage in a stretch of water otherwise unsafe for vessels.
   buoys marked the safe limits of the channel

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A chain blocked the navigable channel, secured on one side by the city walls and on the other by a tower on an island close to the shore.
   • Just recently new lights were installed in the channel making it navigational at night for the first time ever.
   • He also called for the provision of navigational lights along the channel, the removal of some boulders and the provision of marina facilities on both side of the bridge.
   • But there are concerns that the proposal could cause channels to silt up and become less navigable for leisure craft.
   • The most costly element of the dredging will be the removal of a massive rock which is located in a shallow area of the channel on the south side of the harbour.
   • Every day the ship carefully navigated through the channels of blue icebergs, some as large as aircraft carriers, some smaller chunks of the most magnificently formed shapes.
   • If a vessel veers off the channel to port the light becomes red and veering to starboard shows a green light.
   • By our English law there is a public right of passage through our navigable channels, whether in a port or the approaches to it.
   • Chairman, Tom Fitzgerald, said due to the present depth of the channel, large vessels were restricted in entering the area.
   • There is always a good head of water maintained in the navigational channel with a maximum depth approaching 12 ft at low tide.
   • The original purpose of the canal was to drain the Lough Mask basin and provide a navigation channel for commercial traffic.
   • Trapped, they chose to paddle three miles down the coast to Waimea, where they hoped the deep-water bay would provide a navigable channel.
   • The Port Authority has stated that it was looking at undertaking some dredging to widen the shipping channel so that vessels including the Irish ferry would be able to pass the jetty at a further distance.
   • It was conducted in response to the Geraldton Port Authority's plan to deepen the harbour and shipping channel to allow vessels to take full loads when they leave the port.
   • They missed the channel and went aground, burying the vessel a good four metres into the reef.
   • Some of these systems can also show the contour of the bottom on both sides of the boat, a great benefit when navigating unmarked channels.
   • Large ships coming g into Glasgow from the sea use a channel of deeper water in the middle of the Clyde to navigate the river.
   • However, local knowledge would suggest that many vessels follow the channel to the East of the Dangers.
   • The beautiful vessel was steered through the channel by Harbour Master, Donal Walsh, who brought her carefully to the quay wall without a hitch.
   • The present channel is 3m deep and larger vessels can only enter the harbour in suitable tides.

   Synonyms

   strait, straits, sound, neck, arm, narrows, passage, sea passage, stretch of water, waterway
3. 1.3 A hollow bed for a natural or artificial waterway.
   the river is confined in a narrow channel

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The city is crossed from east to west by the Rio Mapocho, which passes through an artificial stone channel 40m wide spanned by several bridges.
   • I can believe the widespread flowing water part, but did this flowing water excavate channels and valleys or create unconformities over a long period of time?
   • Mud was stripped off the peat over wide areas, and narrow channels were locally cut through the mud and into the peat.
   • Meandering is a very common feature of natural river channels, but the morphology and stability of meanders varies.
   • It will mirror the other segments and include two more water vessels and cascades, one more water channel, one more lawn and one more plant bed.
   • It is possible that it represents an entirely artificial channel, constructed when the marshes were drained as a replacement for this natural watercourse.
   • In addition, some power plants discharge warm water into inland channels, creating more temperate oases for manatees.
   • The laminated character and the association with sandstone suggest deposition from suspension in abandoned channels or ox-bow lakes.
   • Swamp forests of bald cypress and tupelo grow in low-lying areas such as floodplains or abandoned river channels.
   • As is illustrated by Lake Nokomis, some drainages have been altered by the construction of dams and artificial channels.
   • In the last four months, archaeologists have revealed the pool's 50m length and a channel that brought water from the Silwan Spring to the pool.
   • The bay areas have roads and channels that can be seen leading to the modified shore lines.
   • Electrical barriers, which produce an electrical field, have limited but proven use in ditches and other narrow water channels.
   • In time, as the Ecca Sea filled with sediment and the deltas prograded basinward, large tracts of river channels and floodplains emerged.
   • To power their sawmill's waterwheel, they carved out a channel which in effect created the island we know today.
   • When there were less built-up areas and the storm water channels were free of blockages and more tanks to collect rainwater, the monsoon barely made any difference.
   • A few weeks ago this ice measured three metres thick and was blocking 80% of the channel in this area right down to the bottom of the river.
   • They are excavating on both sides of the M62, cutting a diversion channel so the canal go under the motorway bridge without disrupting traffic above.
   • Many follow the island's 1,365 miles of irrigation channels, called levadas, stretches of which run along steep slopes with precipitous drops to one side.
   • It was built on a sloping terrain between two seasonal storm-water channels with dams and channels to direct the water into huge reservoirs.

   Synonyms

   duct, gutter, groove, furrow, rut, conduit, trough, trench, culvert, cut, sluice, spillway, race, ditch, drain, watercourse, waterway, canal

2A band of frequencies used in radio and television transmission, especially as used by a particular station.

1. 2.1 A service or station using a channel of frequencies.
   a new television channel

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Television and radio networks became all-news channels.
   • He runs College Sports TV, an all college sports channel launched last year.
   • The shopping channels actively encourage viewers to feel close to the hosts.
   • There was the sense that the programme had simply stepped out of line with the channel's public service broadcasting remit.
   • This is a device that is also descrambling pay-per-view or premium channels.
   • All the television and radio channels and newspapers are devoting lots of time to it.
   • To get millions of people to sit down in front of a TV channel for any length of time and soak up all those advertising messages, broadcasters first have to spend big money.
   • Coming from Canada, where the sport is something of a religion, it's frustrating to say that the sport channels in this area of the world give precedence to almost everything else.
   • Before joining the channel in February 1998, he had spent 18 years with the BBC, where he edited Match of the Day, Grandstand and Sportsnight.
   • But she admitted she became increasingly frustrated with him because he only wanted her to do minor things like change the TV channel or open the curtains.
   • And MTV pledges to make stars out of some aspiring African musicians, as it launches its first pan-African channel.
   • In almost every country, the largest television channels, radio stations, and newspapers are owned either by a few families or by the government.
   • Remember, this was at the height of the comedy boom, when every TV channel had a stand up show, all of it bland and sanitized for your protection.
   • Terrestrial channels have lost a total of an hour and a quarter a week in just two years.
   • The proliferation of cable television channels has changed the dynamics of political advertising.
   • In 1996, in alliance with computer giant Microsoft, it launched the cable news channel MSNBC.
   • For 12 years of her Met Office career, she has provided forecasts on a host of BBC television and radio channels.
   • I linger on stuff that I wouldn't normally choose - greyhound racing, charismatic religious stations, shopping channels, and so on.
   • Out of the eight main channels, five were showing sport.
   • In due course it was joined by other music-themed channels, and soon a growing number of fans had unlimited access to televised pop at the touch of a remote.

3A method or system for communication or distribution.

4An electric circuit which acts as a path for a signal.

1. 4.1Electronics The semiconductor region in a field-effect transistor that forms the main current path between the source and the drain.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • A conductive gate electrode is formed over a second dielectric layer overlying the channel region.
   • The change in inactivation time constant indicates that MTSET-modified channels were carrying current.
   • The metal gate on a current transistor sits above the channel and silicon material.
   • In either case, there was no outward current through the channels during the depolarization.
   • This is defined by the voltage on which drain current begins to flow through the channel of the transistor at an ON state.

5Biology
A tubular passage or duct for liquid.

1Direct towards a particular end or object.

1. 1.1 Cause to pass along or through a specified route or medium.
   many countries channel their aid through charities

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Heavy-duty vehicles moving hazardous substances and goods are to be channelled along specific corridors.
   • Once the effluent is pushed up it is then channelled towards the algae basin.
   • The funding of these local tourist boards should be guaranteed and channelled through Local Enterprise Companies.
   • Until 1881 wineries were not able to sell wine directly to the public but had to channel their produce through hotels, the country's only liquor outlets.
   • All the proceeds from the profits of the video will be donated to the Afghan Children's Relief Fund and the money will be channelled through the relief agency, Trocaire.
   • For years Cottonwood Creek was channeled through a 96-inch pipe.
   • From the flyover, vertical pipes will channel the water into pits in the ground.
   • After the arteries deliver blood to your arms and legs, your veins channel blood back to the heart using one-way valves.
   • Although the heavy through traffic will not now be channelled along the narrow residential roads of Marina Meadows where children will be playing this summer, light local traffic will be diverted there.
   • The air is raised by a bellows and on many instruments is brought under pressure in a reservoir; it is then channelled through the pipes by means of valves operated by the keyboard.
   • The government is known to think that the TV will be the main way in which the UK will access the Internet and it is holding back resources so they can be channelled through this medium.
   • In addition, the submarine ran its diesel engines, channeling the exhaust into the forward ballast tanks in an effort to force out more of the water and make the ship lighter.
   • Other donations from the hotel group were channeled through the Accor office in Jakarta, to be delivered to victims through a television charity program.
   • At present, teams receive about £6,000 a year from the Executive, channelled through police authorities.
   • As the water rushed down the river, the flood was channeled directly toward the classrooms.
   • But we have short-circuited this natural process by constructing hundreds of miles of levees along the river and channeling the rushing water into the Gulf of Mexico, where essential sediment is dumped.
   • These elements channel the traffic in front of the auditorium along drives that lead into the site from the highway.
   • The millwheel was driven by water from the River Cole, which was channelled along an artificial leat.
   • He appealed to the EU not to channel the money through the banks but directly empower the miners through their associations.
   • It's at this time of year, depending on the wind and the currents, that this weed is channelled towards our shores where it clogs the inlets and beaches until the currents shift again.
   • And now the interstellar dust is channeled more efficiently towards the inner Solar System.
   • Some activists criticized the United States for not channeling the money through the United Nations global AIDS fund.

   Synonyms

   convey, transmit, transport, conduct, direct, guide, bear, carry, relay, pass on, transfer
2. 1.2 (of a person) serve as a medium for (a spirit)
   she was channelling the spirit of Billie Holiday

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Sometimes I think I'm channelling others and don't even know it.
   • Oddly enough the last witchcraft trial was held only fifty or so years ago after medium Helen Duncan revealed a ship had been torpedoed after channelling one of the dead seamen.
   • He appears as a man who can channel spirits, and impersonates Elvis.
   • Or perhaps I'm just channelling George Orwell because he's more fun than The Economics Of Contract And Tort Law.: P
   • He also goes on to infer that he is channeling the spirit of Charlie Chaplin with the use of digital production.
   • I think I'll channel her spirit, let her ask me a few questions that I know she would ask if she could.
   • It's like Alice Cooper channelling Ray Charles in Elton John's living room with Black Sabbath at the mixing desk.
   • Most of these references are to a series of books where a medium channels an entity named Seth.
   • A recorded message was played - purportedly of the medium channeling Monty's spirit.
   • Afterwards he practically claimed to have been channelling the spirit of Kaufman, who died in 1984.
   • Since then I have channelled spirit guides for myself and others.
   • If, for some reason, these fantastic ideas don't work for you, just type whatever the hell comes to mind and tell people you're channeling Virginia Woolf and experimenting with stream-of-consciousness.
   • He was an absolute creation, a man possessed with the dark spirit of the personas he was channeling.
   • The film's nadir is an interview with ‘Ramtha,’ a 35,000-year-old spirit channeled by a woman named JZ Knight.
3. 1.3 Emulate or seem to be inspired by.
   Meg Ryan plays Avery as if she's channelling Nicole Kidman

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Only the future that Gall channeled in her album 1968 is more of a retro mishmash here.
   • I had assumed the place would be overrun with Inklings fans and legions of folks trying to channel Frodo and Co. at the Prancing Pony.
   • However, a few times, I could hear Kareem channeling Roger Murdock.
   • I thought Peel might actually be channelling the Devil.
   • Panettiere channels her best teenage Elizabeth Taylor (National Velvet) with wide, expressive eyes and a quivering lip to signal imminent emotion.
   • Bernard Sumner, who assumed singing duties in New Order, sounds a lot like he's channeling Ian Curtis on this track.
   • But before you take on the hordes of sixth-graders channeling Danny Kass at your local pipe, you need to master some basics.
   • "Are we channeling Audrey tonight?"
   • There are even moments on this disc where she channels the energy and spirit of the late, great Bob Marley.
   • That means more to take care of and I've channeled about as much of Martha Stewart as I can handle.
   • I'm not going to be channeling my husband.
   • But in Dream Cruise he's channeling vaudeville.
   • Martin Short practically channeled the puckish, meticulous interviewer on SCTV.
   • Tilly delivers a particularly hilarious, overwrought performance, apparently channelling Courtney Love.
   • Perhaps Nick was channelling Jerry Garcia?
   • Together we're leafing through the final proof copy, and I'm mesmerised by the rich colours, those magical prints, the way Rhodes has channelled inspiration gleaned from world travel.
   • In singing a duet of "Unforgettable," for example, he would channel both Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole.
   • Auto plant workers in east Ohio heard Hillary Clinton seemingly channel John Edwards.
   • By mewling out loud like I got a kidney stone and I'm fixin' to die, I am channeling the spirit of Johnson.
   • Suddenly I am channelling words from a bygone era.

2usually as adjective channelledForm channels or grooves in.