funnel
verbEtymology From Middle English funell, fonel, probably through Old French *founel (compare Middle French fonel, Old Occitan fonilh, enfounilh), from Latin fundibulum, infundibulum (“funnel”), from infundere (“to pour in”); in (“in”) + fundere (“to pour”); compare Breton founilh (“funnel”), Welsh ffynel (“air hole, chimney”). See fuse.
1
To use a funnel.
2
To proceed through a narrow gap or passageway akin to a funnel; to condense or narrow.
- Expect delays where the traffic funnels down to one lane.
- 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text A line of clocks in our cheap hotel displays the time in Lagos, Bucharest, Kiev: the capitals of pilgrims who come to kneel at the birthplace of Christ. In reality the entire world funnels through the Church of the Nativity.
3
To channel, direct, or focus (emotions, money, resources, etc.).
- Our taxes are being funnelled into pointless government initiatives.
- Like so many others, I was awestruck by the first season, which captured a moment in time and successfully funnelled its rage outwards at a world in which women are indeed silenced, controlled and killed by men.2018 June 16, Fiona Sturges, “Cattleprods! Severed tongues! Torture porn! Why I’ve stopped watching the Handmaid’s Tale”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2020:
2 more examples
- The Soviet Union had a substantially larger land army, considerably larger than NATO and the U.S.,” Sharpless said. […]So, one strategy was to block various access routes and perhaps funnel them into an area where you could use larger weapons against them.2019 January 7, Paul Srubas, “His job was to place atomic bombs. Place them, not drop them. Set the timer. Run like hell.”, in Green Bay Press-Gazette:
- He was alive to every creak and dunt, the thinness of the walls, as if the tenement block was a kind of aural panopticon that funnelled every sound to the other residents, let everyone eavesdrop on their business.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 274:
4
To consume (beer, etc.) rapidly through a funnel, typically as a stunt at a party.
- The first time he did it was to this freshman Kevin Ryers and we all just burst out laughing, watching Kevin try to funnel a beer.2013, Jonathan Caren, The Recommendation, page 31:
- Derived terms
- refunnel