funnel
/ˈfʌn(ə)l
/noun
1A tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.He referred to the fact that he also knows at the present time that the cavity opening was like a funnel, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top....
- The range of ideas explored should feel like a funnel, starting off wide, and narrowing as you go along.
- This device acts as a funnel, guiding a woman's urine to the relief tube.
Synonyms
tube, pipe, channel, conduit
2A metal chimney on a ship or steam engine.The cruiser lurched under the hail of fire - two shots slammed into the wheels and funnels of the strange ship, shattering wood and rending metal until the sleek machine of death became a tangled mess of bloody scrap....
- Her symptoms are much milder, certainly, but Christopher has a fear of the colour yellow; Hayley has a phobia about cogs and ship funnels.
- From a distance, you can also make out the ship's two enormous funnels, each emblazoned on both sides with a huge letter ‘S ‘set in a laurel wreath.’
Synonyms
chimney, flue, vent, shaft;
Scottish & Northern English lum
verb (funnels, funnelling, funnelled; US funnels, funneling, funneled) [with object and adverbial of direction]
1Guide or channel (something) through or as if through a funnel: some $12.8 billion was funnelled through the Marshall Plan...
- When calves are fed milk it is funnelled through the oesophageal groove to the true stomach by-passing the rumen.
- Even when Congress orders a study, the funding doesn't come directly from the legislature; it is usually funneled through an executive agency - one which might be opposed to the study and hold up the funding.
- Funds, clothing, food, etc. are not given directly to the poor, rather they are funneled through the recipient government.
Synonyms
channel, guide, feed, direct, convey, move, pass;
pour, filter, siphon
1.1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Move or be guided through or as if through a funnel: the wind funnelled down through the valley...
- They'll make it physical, use to their benefit the fact that the Gaelic Grounds is a small pitch and attempt to force Kerry to play a tight game funnelled down the middle.
- The cavern funnelled down to a gloomy interior with a floor at 16m and seemed ideal for the purpose.
- That emphasis has been funneled down to individual papers and newsrooms through a variety of performance requirements, marketing programs and new product strategies.
1.2 [no object] Assume the shape of a funnel by widening or narrowing at the end: the crevice funnelled out...
- Indeed, the only disappointment in the hearts of Rovers fans as they funnelled out the gate was that there were not more goals.
- As our sleepiness dissipated into the dank pre-dawn air, we funneled out of the darkness into the foreboding cigarette smoke-filled briefing room.
- Huge swathes of important streets, like Third Avenue - a main artery on the East Side - would simply be shut down unexpectedly during prime hours, and all cars funneled through a narrow point.
Origin
Late Middle English: apparently via Old French from Provençal fonilh, from late Latin fundibulum, from Latin infundibulum, from infundere, from in- 'into' + fundere 'pour'.