channel

channel 1 passage, *strait, narrows, sound

2 Channel, canal, conduit, duct, aqueduct all mean something through which a fluid (as water) is led or flows.

Channel implies the natural bed of a stream of running or moving waters; the term is also applied to a deep portion of a stream or body of water either where the main current flows or where a good passage for boats exists

{

the brook's channel is nowhere more than three feet deep

}

{

the channel for ships into the harbor needs to be dredged frequently on account of the drifting sands

}

Channel often applies also to a natural or an artificial passageway (as a tube, a gutter, a ditch, or a trough) through which something (as waste) flows or (as chain or wire) runs

{

the poison channel in a snake's fangs

}

{

the channel of a tackle block through which the rope runs

}

Canal is used for an artificial waterway which connects two bodies of water

{

the New York State Barge Canal connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson river

}

{

the Panama Canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

}

It is also used in designations of various ana-; tomical grooves or tubular channels (as for the containing of some structure or the passage of some substance)

{

blood vessels of bone occupy the haversian canals

}

{

the alimentary canal through which food passes in the course of digestion

}

Conduit may be applied to an artificial or natural passageway that serves to convey or transmit a fluid

{

volcanoes . . . made by discharge of material through a more or less cylindrical conduit in the earth's crust— How el Williams

}

but the term is more often used specifically for a large heavy pipe which conveys water from a reservoir to a point where it is distributed or for a pipe that carries the wires or cables of an electric system

{

into it through underground arteries of conduits and pipes, are fed the electric power, gas, and water supply— Science

}

Duct has specific application to one of the small anatomical tubes through which a secretion is conveyed to where it is needed or is excreted from the organism

{

thoracic duct

}

{

bile duct

}

The term is also used in reference to any of the pipes of a furnace or an air-conditioning system through which air is taken in, circulated, or discharged.

Aqueduct is applied to an artificial channel for water (as a conduit) and especially to an artificial structure, in appearance like a bridge, for carrying water over a river, or over a gorge or gap between elevations.

Analogous words: passage, pass (see WAY)

3 vehicle, *mean, instrument, instrumentality, organ, agency, agent, medium