Category:Channel

Chan"nel, n. Etym: [OE. chanel, canel, OF. chanel, F. chenel, fr. L. canalis. See Canal.]

1. The hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run.

2. The deeper part of a river, harbor, strait, etc., where the main current flows, or which affords the best and safest passage for vessels.

3. (Geog.)

Defn: A strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of lands; as, the British Channel.

4. That through which anything passes; means of passing, conveying, or transmitting; as, the news was conveyed to us by different channels. The veins are converging channels. Dalton. At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National assembly such matter as may import that body to know. Burke.

5. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.

6. pl. Etym: [Cf. Chain wales.] (Naut.)

Defn: Flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks. Channel bar, Channel iron (Arch.), an iron bar or beam having a section resembling a flat gutter or channel. -- Channel bill (Zoöl.), a very large Australian cucko (Scythrops Novæhollandiæ. -- Channel goose. (Zoöl.) See Gannet.

channel Chan"nel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Channeled, or Channelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Channeling, or Channelling.]

1. To form a channel in; to cut or wear a channel or channels in; to groove. No more shall trenching war channel her fields. Shak.

2. To course through or over, as in a channel. Cowper.

- ---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Channel -

(1.) The bed of the sea or of a river (Psalms 18:15; Isaiah 8:7).

(2.) The "chanelbone" (Job 31:22 marg.), properly "tube" or "shaft," an old term for the collar-bone.