canal
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//kəˈnal//
- Canada//kəˈnɛl//
- Australia//kəˈnæl//
- New Zealand//kəˈnɛl//
- //kəˈnɔːl//
An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
noun
- 1
An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
- 2
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.
- 3
One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars; see Martian canals
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French canal, from Old French canal, from Latin canālis (“channel, canal, narrow passage”), from canna (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”). Doublet of channel. See also cane and -al.
verb
- 1
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.
- 2
To travel along a canal by boat
Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven.
Forms
- plural
- canals
- past tense
- canalled
- past participle
- canalled
- present participle
- canalling
- third person singular
- canals
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