Library / English Dictionary

FUNNEL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: funnelled    , funnelling   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

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)

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:

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

Synonyms:

funnel; funnel shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

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)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move or pour through a funnel

Example:

funnel the liquid into the small bottle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

There was a black barge, or some other kind of superannuated boat, not far off, high and dry on the ground, with an iron funnel sticking out of it for a chimney and smoking very cosily; but nothing else in the way of a habitation that was visible to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The Macedonia was now but a mile away, the black smoke pouring from her funnel at a right angle, so madly she raced, pounding through the sea at a seventeen-knot gait—’Sky-hooting through the brine, as Wolf Larsen quoted while gazing at her.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Into this opening several bamboo canes had been inserted and the other ends of these canes were in contact with conical clay funnels which collected the gas bubbling up through the mud of the geyser.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)