FUNNEL (funnelled, funnelling)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: funnelled    , funnelling   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does funnel mean? 

• FUNNEL (noun)
  The noun FUNNEL has 3 senses:

1. a conical shape with a wider and a narrower opening at the two ends

2. a conically shaped utensil having a narrow tube at the small end; used to channel the flow of substances into a container with a small mouth

3. (nautical) smokestack consisting of a shaft for ventilation or the passage of smoke (especially the smokestack of a ship)

  Familiarity information: FUNNEL used as a noun is uncommon.

• FUNNEL (verb)
  The verb FUNNEL has 1 sense:

1. move or pour through a funnel

  Familiarity information: FUNNEL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FUNNEL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A conical shape with a wider and a narrower opening at the two ends

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

funnel; funnel shape

Hypernyms ("funnel" is a kind of...):

cone; cone shape; conoid (a shape whose base is a circle and whose sides taper up to a point)

Derivation:

funnel (move or pour through a funnel)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A conically shaped utensil having a narrow tube at the small end; used to channel the flow of substances into a container with a small mouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("funnel" is a kind of...):

utensil (an implement for practical use (especially in a household))

Meronyms (parts of "funnel"):

bell (the flared opening of a tubular device)

Derivation:

funnel (move or pour through a funnel)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(nautical) smokestack consisting of a shaft for ventilation or the passage of smoke (especially the smokestack of a ship)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("funnel" is a kind of...):

smokestack; stack (a large tall chimney through which combustion gases and smoke can be evacuated)

Domain category:

ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)

Holonyms ("funnel" is a part of...):

ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)

• FUNNEL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they funnel    ... he / she / it funnels   
Past simple: funneled    / funnelled   
Past participle: funneled    / funnelled   
-ing form: funneling    / funnelling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move or pour through a funnel

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

funnel the liquid into the small bottle

Hypernyms (to "funnel" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The women funnel water into the bowl

Derivation:

funnel (a conically shaped utensil having a narrow tube at the small end; used to channel the flow of substances into a container with a small mouth)

funnel (a conical shape with a wider and a narrower opening at the two ends)

 Context examples 

These trees act as chimneys, funnelling the methane produced in the submerged soil into the atmosphere.

(Amazon trees are major source of methane emission, SciDev.Net)

Dietary carbohydrates include a variety of sugars that are funneled into glycolysis to supply energy, including other monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides like starch.

(Feeder Pathways for Glycolysis, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The funnel shaped portion of the fallopian tube proximal to the fimbrial segment and most distal to the uterus.

(Infundibular Segment of the Fallopian Tube, NCI Thesaurus)

Its general shape was that of a shallow funnel, all the sides sloping down to a considerable lake in the center.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mammals inhale oxygen-rich air that funnels into smaller branches, ending in tiny sacs where oxygen enters and carbon dioxide leaves the bloodstream.

(Following the lizard lung labyrinth, National Science Foundation)

Winds and converging ocean currents funnel the garbage into a central location, said the study's lead author, Laurent Lebreton of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a nonprofit organization that spearheaded the research.

(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)

The metabolic pathways that lead to degradation of amino acids funnel their carbon chains into metabolic intermediates that generate energy, and their amino groups into the urea cycle to be excreted.

(Catabolic Pathways for Alanine, Glycine, Serine, Cysteine, Tryptophan, and Threonine, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Because of this crude processing and subsequent de-mixing of the chemical components that you create these valleys and mountains in energy that charges can funnel down and concentrate in.

(‘Messy’ production of perovskite material increases solar cell efficiency, University of Cambridge)

The Macedonia, belching the blackest of smoke from her funnel, was charging down upon us from out of the north-east.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A bitter sense of wrong and the thought of Jenny Snow helped her to bear it, and, taking the ignominious place, she fixed her eyes on the stove funnel above what now seemed a sea of faces, and stood there, so motionless and white that the girls found it hard to study with that pathetic figure before them.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)