canal

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A tubular channel within the body or within a plant.

   The fossilised jaw of T. trusleri has a huge canal running through it and that’s believed to have carried all the nerve and related tissue needed for the sense of electroception.

2. 2
   verb

   To dig an artificial waterway in or to (a place), especially for drainage

   In the mangrove-type salt marsh, the entire marsh must be canaled or impounded.

3. 3
   verb

   To travel along a canal by boat

   Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven.

4. 4
   noun

   long and narrow strip of water made for boats or for irrigation

5. 5
   noun

   a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance

6. 6
   noun

   (astronomy) an indistinct surface feature of Mars once thought to be a system of channels

7. 7
   verb

   to provide a city with a canal

8. 8
   noun

   An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French canal, from Old French canal, from Latin canālis (“channel; canal”), from canālis (“canal”), from canna (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of channel.