Forms: 5 fonel(le, 6–7 funell, 6–8 funnell, (6 fonnell, funnelle), 7– funnel. [ME. fonel (15th c.; a supposed earlier example belongs to FUNEL, rope), app. a. OF. *founil (whence Breton founil). Mod. Pr. dialects have founil, enfounilh, which are probably corrupted adoptions of L. infundibulum, f. infundĕre to pour in (the Lat. word may have been familiar from its use in pharmacy); the unrecorded OF. form, and the Sp. fonil, Pg. funil, may be adoptions from Pr.]
1. A cone-shaped vessel usually fitted at the apex with a short tube, by means of which a liquid, powder, or the like, may be conducted through a small opening.
1402–3. Durh. MS. Alm. Roll., j funell.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, III. xxxvii. (1869), 155. A gret old oon … þat a foul sak, deep and perced, heeld with hire teeth, and hadde with inne it a fonelle [F. entonnour].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 170/1. Fonel, or tonowre, fusorium.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xii. 20. The parfume … taken into the mouth through the pipe of a funnell, or tunnell.
1630. B. Jonson, New Inn, I. i. With a funnel, I make shift to fill The narrow vessel.
1739. ‘R. Bull,’ trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 202. To ev’ry Mouth by Turns the Funnel guide, Let Streams of Wine, thro’ pewter Channels, glide.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 179. Make a paper funnel, and put it in the hole of the globe, as near to the glass as you can, so that the amalgam when you pour it in, may not splash and cause the glass to be full of spots.
1854. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 221. The whole fire-box is then filled up with fuel by means of a funnel, which single charge lasts for twelve hours.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxi. 549. The expressed juice was suffered to ferment, probably in the cask; being poured into the tun by means of a funnel, if this be the meaning of the word ‘gata.’
1878. Huxley, Physiography, 49. The instrument [a rain-gauge] consists of little more than a circular metallic funnel for catching the rain, and a vessel for storing it.
fig. 1711. Steele, Spect., No. 228, ¶ 2. The Inquisitive are the Funnels of Conversation…. They are the Channels through which all the Good and Evil that is spoken in Town are conveyed.
1886. Pall Mall G., 3 June, 2/1. If they … become the ‘animated funnels’ of the executives of their associations.
1890. Spectator, 16 Aug. The funnel through which legislation can trickle down to the country is … nearly blocked up.
b. spec. in Casting. The hole through which the metal is poured into a mould. Cf. GATE, INGATE, TEDGE.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 925/1.
c. Anat. and Zool. A funnel-shaped organ or limb; an infundibulum.
1712. Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, VI. 493.
| Some [muscles] the long Funnel’s curious Mouth extend | |
| Thro’ which ingested Meats with Ease descend. |
1839. Johnston, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. No. 7. 200. Funnel [of cuttle-fish] white.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 623. The surrounding element being alternately drawn into the branchial cavity, by the action of its muscular walls, through a valvular aperture provided for the purpose, and again expelled in powerful streams through the orifice of the funnel.
2. A tube or shaft for lighting or ventilating purposes; also, the metal chimney of an engine, steamboat, etc. † Formerly also, the soil-pipe of a privy.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 362. Nor yet can any fyre be mayntayned in the caue except it receaue the ayer by sum respiracle or breathynge place by meanes of a funell or trunke of woodde or such other open instrument wherby the ayer maye be conueyed into the caue.
1612. Sturtevant, Metallica, xiii. 92. Priuy Funnels or Vaults may also bee made by the Pressware Art so close and so sweete that there can no annoyance or vnsauory smels euapoure out … Many houses … are much annoyed by the leaking and sincking through the funnels of Brick.
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 39. Admitting neither Light nor Air, more than what the Lamps, always burning, are by open Funnels above suffered to ventilate.
1701. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), V. 36. Sir Christopher Wren has made this day 4 funnells on the top of the house of commons, to lett out the heat, in case they sitt in the summer.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. xv. The funnel to carry the smoke.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. viii. 382. These funnels served to communicate the air to the hold better than could have been done without them.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 480/2. There are … eight funnels for letting out the steam through windows.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple xxix. Mr. Chucks slapped his fist against the funnel.
1839. R. S. Robinson, Naut. Steam Eng., 127. The chimney, or funnel, is made of sheet iron, and rivetted on to the uptake.
1868. Lessons Mid. Age, 315. All this while the steam has been fiercely chafing through the funnel.
b. The flue of a chimney, somewhat resembling an inverted funnel (see quot. 1859).
1688. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 787. The Funnel of the Chimney.
1715. Desaguliers, Fires Impr., 51. The outward Hole of the Funnel ought to be small, always less than the Bore of the Funnel.
1859. Gwilt, Archit. (ed. 4), 949. The cavity or hollow [of a chimney] from the fireplace to the top of the room is called the funnel.
3. Applied to a funnel-shaped opening, shaft, or channel in rocks, etc.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 102. The sides of the funnel are actually often burst with the great violence of the flame.
1791. W. Bartram, Carolina, 246. The ground … presenting to view, those funnels, sinks and wells in groups of rocks … as already recited.
1812. Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana (1814), 106. A strange appearance is also given by the number of funnels, or sink holes, formed by the washing of the earth into fissures of the limestone rock, on which the country reposes.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, I. xxix. 278. This blast is said to be caused by a narrow gap or funnel in the mountains through which the river forces its way between perpendicular precipices, resembling cut rocks.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Funnel, the excavation formed by the explosion of a mine.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., iv. 105. The crater now became a funnel 300 feet deep, which was accessible to the bottom.
4. Applied to anything of conical shape with an extension at the apex.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), I. iv. 108. This [cloud] gradually changed into a filmy funnel, from the narrow end of which the ‘cord’ extended to the cloud in advance.
1897. Hall Caine, Christian, x. He lay back, sent funnels of smoke to the ceiling.
5. A cylindrical band of metal; esp. that fitted on to the head of the topgallant and royal masts, to which the rigging is attached.
1694. Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 161. The Wooden Stick is fastened within the Iron Coller or Funnel of the Harpoon, with Packthread wound all about.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 74. The head is round to receive the funnel.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 31. The rigging of a royal mast, topgallant mast and topmast, is placed upon a copper funnel fitting the mast head.
6. A channel, leading from a pond, over which a net is spread forming a ‘pipe,’ broad at the mouth but narrowing to a point, into which wild fowl are decoyed.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VI. 138. This little animal [dog] … keeps playing among the reeds, nearer and nearer the funnel, till they [wild fowl] follow him too far to recede.
7. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib., as funnel-pipe, tube; similative, as funnel-fashioned, -formed, -like, adjs.; funnel-wise adv.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Funnel-fashioned flowers.
1831. T. L. Peacock, Crotchet Castle, xviii. 273. The fire was open on all sides, and the smoke was caught and carried back, under a *funnel-formed canopy, into a hollow central pillar.
1836–9. R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, II. 757/2. The fibrous *funnel-like sheath.
1846. Daily News, 21 Jan., 6/5. Narrow, up-hill, funnel-like streets.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., i. 13. The flue continued by a piece of *funnel-pipe fitted loosely into the hole.
1853. W. Gregory, Inorg. Chem. (ed. 4), 376. Through one aperture in the cork passes the *funnel tube.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xviii. The landlord … applied himself to warm the same in a small tin-vessel shaped *funnelwise.
b. Special comb., as funnel-casing(s (see quot. 1883); funnel-form = funnel-shaped; funnel-hood (see quot.); funnel-net, the net of a funnel (sense 6); funnel polype (see quot.); funnel-shaped a., shaped like a funnel, infundibuliform, esp. in Bot.; funnel-stays (see quot.); funnel-top (see quot.).
1877. Sir C. W. Thomson, Voy. ‘Challenger,’ I. i. 18. An excellent drying-room has been discovered in a space in the *funnel-casings.
1883. W. C. Russell, Sailors’ Lang., Funnel-casing.—A portion of the funnel of a steamer extending from the smoke-box to some distance upwards.
1880. Gray, Struct. Bot., vi. § 5. 249. Infundibuliform, or *Funnel-form, such as the corolla of common Morning-Glory, denotes a tube gradually enlarged upwards from a narrow base into an expanding border or limb.
1883. W. C. Russell, Sailor’s Lang., *Funnel hood.—A projected portion of or protection to the funnel, raised some feet above the deck.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VI. 138. The decoy-ducks never enter the *funnel-net with the rest.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Polype, The *funnel polype nearly resembles a funnel, from which it has its name. Ibid., Infundibuliform … There are properly two species of the *funnel-shaped flowers.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 147. Over this a kind of funnel-shaped supplier is to be made fast.
1860. G. A. Spottiswoode, A Tour in Civil and Military Croatia, 77. The surface is honeycombed throughout with circular, funnel-shaped holes, twenty, fifty, or a hundred feet or more in diameter.
1846. Voung, Naut. Dict., s.v. Funnel, This [funnel] is secured by ropes or chains, called the *funnel-stays, leading from eye-plates near the top of the funnel to the ship’s sides.
1854. Mayne, Exp. Lex., *Funnel-Top, common name for the genus Peziza.
Hence † Funnel v. a. intr. of smoke: to issue out or rise up in a funnel-shaped cloud; b. trans. to feed with a funnel. Funnelled ppl. a., funnel-shaped; also fig.; in Bot. infundibuliform.
1594. Nashe, Vnfort. Trav., Wks. (Grosart), V. 125. Before a gun is shot off, a stinking smoake funnels out and prepares the waie for him. Ibid. (1596), Saffron Walden, 102. A dampe (like the smoake of a Cannon) … would strugglingly funnell vp.
1730. ‘R. Bull,’ trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 202. To ev’ry Mouth by Turns the Funnel guide, Let Streams of Wine, thro’ pewter Channels, glide Adown the Throats … [Note] Whenever this Comedy is represented, the Gentlemen of the upper Gallery are exceedingly delighted with seeing Teague funnel Obadiah.
1793. W. Roberts, Looker-on, No. 67, ¶ 14. The auditory passage was extremely narrow, and not funnelled as in other subjects.
1849. Florist, 194. [A pelargonium] too funnelled, and the blotch on upper petals not even.
1883. D. Pidgeon, in Nature, 23 June. The double funneled stem of whirling mist [of a waterspout].
1894. Blackmore, Perlycross, 130. Quivering to the swell of funneled uproar.
