tunnel

noun tun·nel \ ˈtə-nᵊl \

|Updated on: 12 Jun 2018

Examples: tunnel in a Sentence

Definition of tunnel

1 a : a covered passageway; specifically : a horizontal passageway through or under an obstruction

b : a subterranean gallery (as in a mine)

c : burrow

2 : a hollow conduit or recess : tube, well

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tunnellike

play \ˈtə-nᵊl-ˌ(l)īk\ adjective

See tunnel defined for English-language learners

See tunnel defined for kids

Examples of tunnel in a Sentence

The train goes through a tunnel in the mountain.
The moles dug tunnels in the yard.

Recent Examples of tunnel from the Web

Barkley runners jump into a creek and wade through a tunnel that goes under the jail, emerging just steps away from the wall that Ray and his fellow escapees jumped.

— david g. allan, CNN, "The infamous murderer's prison escape that inspired a near-impossible ultramarathon," 26 May 2018
The tent camps line broad sidewalks running through tunnels underneath the railroad tracks.

— jon kamp, WSJ, "Wracked by Opioid Crisis, Philadelphia Braces for Tent-Camp Closures," 26 May 2018
Hamas also infiltrated into Israel through tunnels during the 2014 war, killing at least six Israeli soldiers, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

— Washington Post, "As Gaza death toll rises, Israeli tactics face scrutiny," 16 May 2018
Don't miss the train ride through the shark tunnel.

— Houston Chronicle, "Houston restaurants that welcome kids with open arms," 10 May 2018
Much is made of a story about how John F. Kennedy smuggled Marilyn Monroe through a tunnel to the Carlyle, but then the idea is pretty convincingly debunked.

— matthew miele, New York Times, "Review: ‘Always at the Carlyle’ Hints at Scandal, Chooses Discretion," 9 May 2018
That way, when using the internet, any external traffic is run through the tunnel so that your credit card data and other personal information are safer — even when using local hotspots and other public internet sources.

— anna hecht, CNN Underscored, "What is a VPN and why should you buy one?," 7 May 2018
All attendees have the opportunity to feel part of the action, by entering Soldier Field through the tunnel and purchasing tickets for a stadium tour.

— hannah steinkopf-frank, RedEye Chicago, "Chicago festivals this week: Cantina Crawl 2018, Chicago Beer Classic," 4 May 2018
According to persistent stories from Edwards, those cameras repeatedly captured images of desert sasquatch moving through the tunnels by night.

— aaron gilbreath, Longreads, "The Known Unknown: Tales of the Yucca Man," 25 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tunnel.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of tunnel

Middle English tonel cask, tun, from Anglo-French, from tone tun

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1508

in the meaning defined at sense 2

See Words from the same year

tunnel

verb

Definition of tunnel

tunneled or tunnelled; tunneling or tunnelling play \ˈtən-liŋ, ˈtə-nᵊl-iŋ\

intransitive verb

1 : to make or use a tunnel

2 physics : to pass through a potential barrier

electrons tunneling through an insulator between semiconductors

transitive verb

: to make a tunnel or similar opening through or under; also : to make (one's way) by or as if by making a tunnel

—

tunneler

play \ˈtən-lər, ˈtə-nᵊl-ər\ noun

See tunnel defined for English-language learners

Examples of tunnel in a Sentence

Workers are tunneling through the hill.
Insects had tunneled into the tree.

Recent Examples of tunnel from the Web

Noted artist James Turrell, whose installations manipulate light and shadows to turn ordinary settings into mystical spaces, has tunneled through, hollowed out and sculpted Roden Crater over the past four decades.

— scott craven, azcentral, "What is artist James Turrell creating inside a Flagstaff crater? He's been at it for 40 years," 14 May 2018
The latest proposals would shave 2.5 billion pounds from the bill and avoid a significant hike in user charges by building a sloping runway to span the M25 motorway without tunneling, phasing the opening of terminals and even shortening the strip.

— christopher jasper, Bloomberg.com, "Heathrow Confident of Getting Its New Runway Past Parliament," 1 May 2018
Argo is a multipurpose tunneling tool intended primarily to provide a secure channel for Web servers to connect to Cloudflare's content delivery network.

— sean gallagher, Ars Technica, "How to keep your ISP’s nose out of your browser history with encrypted DNS," 8 Apr. 2018
There’s just something about tunneling your escape, avoiding guards and searchlights, that just feels cool.

— the editors of gq, GQ, "A Way Out Review: The Best Two-Player Game in a Very Long Time," 13 Apr. 2018
Hebeisen continued: Once the connection is open, whoever controls the other end of it can now tunnel through the mobile device into the network to which the device is currently connected.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "Menacing Android botnet still thrives 16 months after coming to light," 26 Jan. 2018
The drug lord escaped from prison in 2015 after a crew tunneled to retrieve him.

— jeremy bagott, WSJ, "Drug Cartels Could Defeat Trump’s Wall," 27 July 2017
The streams tunneling along the ice were tinted a mint blue, a color that results from the sun hitting the water's limestone silt.

— debbi snook, cleveland.com, "Canadian Rockies a towering visual treat by foot -- or bus (photos, video)," 18 Mar. 2018
While Tesla CEO Elon Musk may be known as a visionary for dreaming of rockets to Mars or tunneling under cities, his latest idea is downright retro.

— zlati meyer, USA TODAY, "Tesla's latest venture? A drive-in restaurant -- may even with carhops," 15 Mar. 2018