Definition of tunnel in English:
tunnel
See synonyms for tunnelTranslate tunnel into Spanish
noun
1An artificial underground passage, especially one built through a hill or under a building, road, or river.
‘New roads and tunnels have been built and public transport modernised.’- ‘A bank of trees here or a cycleway there makes no odds if you're building two major new roads and a massive tunnel.’
- ‘Drivers must now call the police immediately if their vehicles break down on elevated roads, tunnels and bridges across the Huangpu River.’
- ‘Local villagers cut a tunnel road through the mountain and named it Guoliang Cave.’
- ‘Whilst Alpine road and rail tunnels and the Channel tunnel have made travel between some of Europe's nations easier, physical and cultural barriers remain.’
- ‘The Faroese also boast some spectacular road tunnels, but they're not so excited about these feats of engineering that they feel obliged to name them after people.’
- ‘Authorities abroad are increasingly opting for road tunnels.’
- ‘I hope the tunnels and more roads will change the situation so I can have a car soon.’
- ‘Norway is home to the longest and the deepest road tunnels in the world.’
- ‘The Limerick South Ring Road, including the tunnel, will allow traffic to bypass Limerick city by linking the Docks Road with the Ennis Road.’
- ‘A Swindon engineering company is taking a lead role in the design of a road tunnel beneath 5,000-year-old Stonehenge.’
- ‘They are building a road tunnel through the area.’
- ‘A tunnel closed and the road was down to two lanes.’
- ‘Detective Constable Ian Thornton and PC Kim Wandless tracked Wood down to a tunnel under King's Road and he was arrested.’
- ‘He conceded, however, that the toll might cause people to avoid the tunnel and use local roads instead.’
- ‘As I went into the tunnel at Finchley Road I switched off all the interior lights.’
- ‘We have a toll road here that goes through a tunnel under the river.’
- ‘The winning consortium is likely also to take over the running of the Dartford tunnel and road bridge that carries the M25 over the Thames east of London.’
- ‘A tunnel has been built leading to the new underground ‘bat hotel’, which has tiered accommodation from which bats can hang.’
- ‘There are deep gashes in the roads; some are still blocked by landslides and a major road tunnel to the town has collapsed.’
underground passage, subterranean passageView synonyms- 1.1An underground passage dug by a burrowing animal.‘It burrows a tunnel far into a sandy bank on the riverside and dwells therein, safe from cold, wind, rain and creatures that would devour it.’
- ‘Animal tunnels incorporated into the design will also allow local wildlife to cross.’
- ‘Burrow tunnels were examined each day; in 1999, younger nestlings left the supplements uneaten.’
- ‘They line the burrow tunnel with pebbles and shell fragments.’
- ‘Many fungi are found in soil and often fostered by small ground animals and their feces-filled tunnels.’
- ‘It is not known if all the burrow nesting species excavate the tunnels or if some use tunnels dug by rodents or other animals.’
- ‘Their burrows were normally underground, in long tunnels.’
- ‘Small mounds are created when moles burrow deep or tunnel under solid objects such as tree roots or sidewalks.’
- 1.2in singular A passage in a sports stadium by which players enter or leave the field.‘That incident briefly flared up again as the players entered the tunnel after the game.’
- ‘A television camera followed the Wales team from their changing room to the players' tunnel at the Millennium Stadium.’
- ‘Wenger claimed he didn't see the scuffles between opposing players and coaches in the stadium tunnel after the match.’
- ‘One of the Turkey players stood in the tunnel and, gesturing to me, ran his fingers across his throat as if he wanted to cut it.’
- ‘At 3: 25, Lynch leads the rest of the defensive backs out of the tunnel and onto the field for pre-game warm-ups.’
- ‘By half-time it is clear that Everton are second best, and Moyes disappears down the tunnel before his players, his face an intense mixture of frustration and fury.’
- ‘In Frankfurt the players are in the tunnel.’
- ‘Both sets of mascots click-clack out of the tunnel holding their players by the hands and then line up.’
Pronunciation
verbverb tunnels, verb tunneling, verb tunneled, verb tunnelling, verb tunnelled
1no object, with adverbial of direction Dig or force a passage underground or through something.
‘he tunneled under the fence’- ‘the insect tunnels its way out of the plant’
- ‘In recent years, badgers have tunnelled into 52 ancient monuments on Salisbury Plain.’
- ‘Rescuers tunnelled into the wreckage taking great care to prevent further collapses.’
- ‘They look to tunnel through corporate networks through mass emails.’
- ‘He's got a nice big backyard to roam through, with ivy to tunnel through and a couple of dirt patches to dig in.’
- ‘Gophers tunnel through the ground to eat tender bulbs and shoots.’
- ‘The weevil's eggs are deposited inside the banana tissue and once hatched, they tunnel through the corm for feeding and growth.’
- ‘Termites are usually happy to tunnel through a sand-filled tube, but when a layer of sand soaked in catnip oil is present it stops them dead in their tracks.’
- ‘The snow was so thick, he was able to tunnel through it without it collapsing on him until he started clearing the hood.’
- ‘If you tunnel underground and travel in a straight line, you cover less distance.’
- ‘A tube approximately 24 inches in length is tunneled under the skin into the peritoneum.’
- ‘The catheter is tunneled under the skin and enters a large vein and then is threaded into the superior vena cava.’
- ‘The machine for tunnelling the underground section will be imported from either Japan, Germany or the United Kingdom.’
- ‘These grubs create straight, narrow mines as they tunnel into the leaves, followed by larger, brown or yellow blisters as they grow and feed inside the foliage.’
- ‘Electric transport tunnelled underground as well as overground: the first ‘tube’ was built in London in 1887-90.’
- ‘A week of tramping for miles underground and sleeping in limestone catacombs tunneled out by sulfuric acid is not everyone's idea of happy camping.’
- ‘The site is dangerous and our concern is that they are not experts in tunnelling and we are genuinely concerned about their safety.’
- ‘Mr Hutton had suggested tunnelling through Bradford, but this would prove too costly, especially as Bradford Beck would have to be diverted.’
- ‘Mr Harris revealed that, despite the ban, he had been part of a group that continued tunnelling through an undiscovered route nicknamed George.’
- ‘Marauding badgers are again tunnelling under a pre-school.’
- ‘Ancient burial sites across Salisbury Plain could soon be fenced off to prevent badgers from tunnelling through the archaeology.’
dig, dig one's way, burrowView synonyms2Physics
no object (of a particle) pass through a potential barrier.‘By making the particles interact, they approximated quantum tunneling - a phenomenon forbidden by classical mechanics.’- ‘They are restricted to orbit given atoms, and they can only move from one to the other by quantum tunneling.’
- ‘In photon tunneling, the intensity of evanescent light is reduced when the lasing particle is approached by a non-lasing one.’
- ‘In rare cases where a quantum mechanical effect called tunneling occurs in the reaction, deuterium isotope effects of 20 or more have been observed.’
- ‘Eventually, quantum confinement effects and tunneling currents dominate the device design.’
Pronunciation
Origin
Late Middle English (in the senses ‘tunnel-shaped net’ and ‘flue of a chimney’): from Old French tonel, diminutive of tonne ‘cask’. tunnel (sense 1 of the noun) dates from the mid 18th century.
Are You Learning English? Here Are Our Top English Tips