n.
- an artificial underground passage, as built through a hill or under a building or by a burrowing animal.
- a polytunnel.
v.
(tunnels, tunnelling, tunnelled; US tunnels, tunneling, tunneled)
- dig or force a passage underground or through something.
- Physics (of a particle) pass through a potential barrier.
Derivative
Etymology
ME (in the senses ‘tunnel-shaped net’ and ‘flue of a chimney’): from OFr. tonel, dimin. of tonne ‘cask’.