Forms: 3–7 chanel, 4 chanelle, 4–7 chanell, (6 chenell), 6–7 channell, 6– channel. [ME. chanel, a. OF. chanel, ‘old form of canal’ (Littré):—L. canāl-em; see CANAL, which also compare for the senses.]
I. A channel of running water, or the like.
1. The hollow bed of running waters; also, the bed of the sea or other body of water.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22563. Of hir chanel þe see sal rise.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. iii. (1495), 442. Somtyme by grete reyne … the water in a ryuer arysith and passith the chanel and brymmes.
1480. Caxton, Descr. Brit., 7. That riuer … leueth ofte the chanel.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Hastings, xlii. Flye from thy chanell Thames.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., iv. 130. The Chanels of Rivers [will be] corroded by the Streams.
1698. Keill, Exam. The. Earth (1734), 129. They would fill the great Channel of the Ocean if it were empty.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 19. A River, or rather a Channel of a River, for it was now almost dry.
1789. Burns, Mary in Heaven. As streams their channels deeper wear.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., V. 226. The water in the second and third channels has a slightly quicker flow than in the main channel.
† 2. A rivulet, a stream. Obs.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 422/1. They came to a ruysel or chanel.
c. 1535. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 916. The broke or chenell, le ruisseau.
1586. R. Scot, Holinshed, in Thynne’s Animadv. (1865), App. 87. When the flood came, the chanell did so suddenlie swell.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 24. Many drops fill the channels; and many channels swell up the brooks.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4122/3. The Navigation of the Fleet Chanel.
3. An artificial course for running water or any liquid. a. The watercourse in a street or by a roadway, the gutter; see esp. quot. 1876; = CANAL 3, KENNEL sb.2 Still common locally.
[Earlier examples under form CANAL, q.v.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 69. Chanelle of a strete, canalis, aquagium.
1579. Lyly, Euphues, 38. Dronken sottes wallowing … in every channel.
1617. Bp. Hall, Quo Vadis? § 20. 79. Euery obscure Holy-day takes the wall of it, and thrusts it into the channell.
1726. Vanbrugh, Journ. London, III. i. Overturned in the channel as we were going to the playhouse.
1876. Gwilt, Encycl Archit. Gloss., Channel, a long gutter sunk below the surface of a body, as in a street.
1882. Halliwell-Phillips, Outl. Life Shaks. (ed. 2), 18. House slops were recklessly thrown into ill-kept channels that lined the sides of unmetalled roads.
attrib. 1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. iii. 185. Scraping base channell roguerie.
b. Founding. A trough to conduct melted metal to the pig-bed or mold.
4. Geog. A (comparatively) narrow piece of water, wider than a mere ‘strait,’ connecting two larger pieces, usually seas. The Channel: spec. the English Channel (Fr. la Manche). b. A navigable passage between shallows in an estuary etc.: e.g., the Thomas Channel, Queen’s Channel, South Channel, at the mouth of the Thames.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 22. The sea in certaine chanels is of such heigth and depth, that no anker may come to the bottome.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. i. 114. I go of Message from the Queene to France: I charge thee waft me safely crosse the Channell.
1727. Swift, Imit. Horace, Wks. 1755, III. II. 48. Cou’d I but live on this side Trent, Nor cross the channel twice a year.
1786. Watson, Philip III. (1839), III. 117. The island [in the Rhine] … is separated by a narrow channel from the town.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., x. (1852), 217. This [Beagle] channel, which was discovered by Captain Fitz Roy during the last voyage.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 89. Our gay Celtic neighbours across the Channel.
Mod. Wreck in St. George’s channel.
† 5. An artificial waterway for boats; = CANAL.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxvi. (1748), 369. And her a channell call because she is so slow.
1644. Evelyn, Diary (1871), 159. The Channells [at Venice] which answer to our streetes.
1683. Weekly Mem. Ingen., 30. The success of the Chanel of Languedoc is a thing of too excellent a nature.
6. A tube or tubular passage, natural or artificial, usually for liquids or fluids. (Now usually less technical than CANAL.)
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 389. A greet pestilence of euel in þe chanelles of men at þe neþer ende.
1578. Timme, Calvin on Gen., 199. Certain chanels or veins of the earth.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 4. The Stings in all Bees are hollow … so that when they prick the flesh, they do also, through that channel, transfuse the poyson into it.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Ductus Pancreaticus, is a little Channel, which arises from the Pancreas or sweet-bread, running all along the middle of it.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., v. (1876), 96. The poison channel in its [a snake’s] fangs.
1854. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol., I. 266. E, a door for the introduction of coke through the channel F.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., II. v. 498. The style … may be penetrated by a channel consisting of a narrow elongation of the cavity of the ovary.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 189. A channel through which heated matter is erupted from below.
b. Mining. An air conduit or pipe in a mine.
II. fig. from I.
7. (from 1.) Course in which anything moves onward; line of action, thought, etc.
[1600. Hakluyt, Voy. (1810), III. 521. Certaine … Mountaines, through which this Riuer passeth with a streight channel.]
1631. Heywood, London’s Jus Hon., Wks. 1874, IV. 271. Keepe the even Channell, and be neither swayde, To the right hand nor left.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), II. 518. Their affections so turned into their proper chanels.
1727. Swift, What passed in Lond., Wks. 1755, III. I. 190. The world went on in the old channel.
1779. J. Moore, View Soc. Fr. (1789), I. xxix. 249. The conversation happening to turn into this channel.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., ii. 34. Turning the abilities of every [Jesuit] brother into that channel in which he was most likely to excel.
8. That through which information, news, trade, or the like passes; a medium of transmission, conveyance or communication; means, agency.
1537. Latimer, Serm. bef. Convoc., B. v. e. A foule filthy chanell of al myscheues.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, II. 174. Another chanel wherein this doctrine is traditionally deriv’d from St. John.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, Introd. 12. The Preservation of the great Channels of Trade.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. iii. § 1. 320. A pure Chanel of Conveyance for Truth.
1785. Reid, Int. Powers, 277. Knowledge … comes by another channel.
1793. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 98. I inquired of him the channel of his information.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., II. 194. No new … channel for investment has been opened.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. xi. 166. He sought it, of course, through the legitimate channel.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, i. 15. Channels of grace.
III. transferred variously.
9. A lengthened groove or furrow on any surface; spec. in Arch. a fluting of a column; in Masons’ work, a long groove or furrow cut in the line along which a stone is to be split.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 48. [Pillars with] their Fusts cut into Angles, about the breadth of an usual Channel.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, xii. 174. Observe the cavetto, or channel, in a cornice.
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 277. The external surface of the column is … divided … into mere channels or flutings.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 1–2. Each carpel is marked by five vertical ridges … these ridges … are separated by channels.
b. In the Manege: see quot.; Naut. the rope track in a tackle-block; Shoe-making: see quot.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Channel, in the manege, is used for that concavity in the middle of the lower jaw of a horse, where the tongue lies.
1874. Harper’s Weekly., 26 Sept., 803/1 (Hoppe). (Advt.) She wore English Channel Shoes…. Ladies, buy no other. Ibid., 17 Oct., 862/3 (Hoppe). (Advt.) What are English Channel Shoes? Sewed shoes have the seam that unites the sole and upper sunk into a channel cut in the sole…. As it cannot be cut in thin, poor leather, it indicates a good article.
† 10. The neck; the throat. (An ancient sense in the parallel form canel; see CANNEL 5, and cf. CANNEL-BONE, CHANNEL-BONE. Obs.
c. 1450[?]. Capgrave, St. Kath., 97. Thei wil breke my chaneles and my throte.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., I. iii. 102. I will strike And cleave him to the channel with my sword.
11. Sc. Gravel. [being the material of which the channel or bed of a river is composed.]
1743. Maxwell, Trans. Soc. Improv. Agric., 109 (Jam.). Having only sand and channel below it.
12. attrib. and Comb., as channel-bed (= sense 1), channel-tile, -way; (sense 4) channel fleet, steamer, tunnel, etc.; channel-bill, an Australian bird, Scythrops Novæ Hollandiæ; † channel-dirt, mud from the gutter (see 3 a); † channel-raker, a scavenger, a low mean fellow; = kennel-raker; channel-shoe (see 9 b); channel-stone, (a.) a stone used in paving gutters; (b.) (-stane), a stone used in the game of curling (Sc.); † channel-water, gutter-water. See also CHANNEL-BONE.
1848. Aytoun, Danube & Eux., 12. Glorious tokens do I bring thee From my distant *channel-bed.
1688. Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, V. 71. Shav’d all on one side, and with a Lather made of *Channel-dirt, instead of a Wash-ball.
1888. Standard, 14 Aug., 3/4. Of his *Channel journeys, two were to France, one to Holland.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 17/2. Neither dooth the popes monarchie lacke his *chanelrakers [etc.].
1789. Davidson, Seasons, 158 (Jam.). The *channelstane, The bracing engine of a Scottish arm.
1460–5. Chw. Accts. St. Andrew’s East Cheap, in Brit. Mag., XXXI. 396. For *chanel stone. pauying Stone [etc.].
1875. Glen, Public Health Act, IV. (1878), 153. Channel stones.
1851. Turner, Dom. Archit., II. Introd. 28. *Channel-tiles.
1888. Standard, 14 Aug., 3/4. The prospects of a *Channel trip were brighter for the rest [of the passengers].
1590. Marlowe, Edw. II., V. iii. 27, K 2 e. Heeres *channell water.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. vi. 68. To look for ice-cracks in the level *channel-way.
