channel

Forms

1.The hollow bed of running waters; (also) the bed of the sea or other body of water.
- The water coming out of the waterwheel created a standing wave in the channel.
2.The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.
- A channel was dredged to allow ocean-going vessels to reach the city.
- European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.
3.The navigable part of a river.
- We were careful to keep our boat in the channel.
4.A narrow body of water between two land masses.
- The English Channel lies between France and England.

1.To direct or guide along a desired course.
- We will channel the traffic to the left with these cones.
- The resources channelled to those institutions which showed themselves most adept at formfilling, self-promotion and presentation were inadequate to sustain the quality they claimed.
- But the real excitement is to be found in Erith and Thamesmead, where the Blairites in exile are channelling their hopes on Georgia Gould, 22, daughter of Mr Tony's famed pollmeister Philip.
2.To serve as a medium for.
- She was channeling the spirit of her late husband, Seth.
3.To follow as a model, especially in a performance.
- When it is my turn to sing karaoke, I am going to channel Ray Charles.
- He was trying to channel President Reagan, but the audience wasn't buying it.
- So I handed out lyrics by Allan Sherman, the shticky 1960s parody writer who my father revered and channeled to the end.
4.To make or cut a channel or groove in.

Uncommon· #2057

From Middle English chanel (also as canel, cannel, kanel), a borrowing from Old French chanel, canel, from Latin canālis (“groove; canal; channel”).

Doublet of canal.