channel

from The Century Dictionary.

• To form or cut a channel or channels in; groove.
• noun In ship-building, a plank of considerable thickness bolted edgewise to a vessel's side, nearly abreast of a mast, and serving to extend the shrouds of the lower rigging and keep them clear of the gunwale, the chain-plates being carried through notches on its outer edge. Also called chain-wale and channel-board.
• noun Gravel.
• noun A tubular passage or duct, such as the pancreatic duct, for liquids or fluids: as, the poison channel of a snake's fangs. Sometimes called canal.
• noun The bed of a stream of water; the hollow or course in which a stream flows.
• noun The deeper part of a river, or of an estuary, bay, etc., where the current flows, or which is most convenient for the track of a ship.
• noun As specifically applied in certain cases: A part of the sea constituting a passageway between a continent and an island, or between two islands; a strait: as, the English channel, between France and England, leading to the strait of Dover; St. George's channel, between Great Britain and Ireland, leading to the Irish sea; the Mozambique channel. A wide arm of the sea extending a considerable distance inland: as, Bristol channel in England.
• noun That by which something passes or is transmitted; means of passing, conveying, transmitting, reaching, or gaining: as, the news was conveyed to us by different channels; channels of influence.
• noun The trough used to conduct molten metal from a furnace to the molds.
• noun A furrow or groove.
• noun Specifically— The cut or depression in the sole of a shoe in which the thread is sunk. A groove cut in a stone in the line along which it is to be split. In architecture, one of a series of shallow vertical curved furrows, of elliptical section, of which each is separated from that adjoining only by a sharp edge or arris. The channel is distinguished from the flute, of which the section is an arc of a circle, and is a characteristic feature of shafts of the Doric order.
• noun The wind-pipe; the throat.
• noun The hollow between the two nether jaw-bones of a horse, where the tongue is lodged.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To form a channel in; to cut or wear a channel or channels in; to groove.
• transitive verb To course through or over, as in a channel.
• noun The hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run.
• noun The deeper part of a river, harbor, strait, etc., where the main current flows, or which affords the best and safest passage for vessels.
• noun (Geog.) A strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of lands.
• noun That through which anything passes; a means of passing, conveying, or transmitting.
• noun A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
• noun (Naut.) Flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.
• noun official routes of communication, especially the official means by which information should be transmitted in a bureaucracy.
• noun a band of electromagnetic wave frequencies that is used for one-way or two-way radio communication; especially, the frequency bands assigned by the FTC for use in television broadcasting, and designated by a specific number.
• noun one of the signals in an electronic device which receives or sends more than one signal simultaneously, as in stereophonic radios, records, or CD players, or in measuring equipment which gathers multiple measurements simultaneously.
• noun (Cell biology) an opening in a cell membrane which serves to actively transport or allow passive transport of substances across the membrane.
• noun (Computers) a path for transmission of signals between devices within a computer or between a computer and an external device.
• noun (Arch.) an iron bar or beam having a section resembling a flat gutter or channel.
• noun (Zoöl.) a very large Australian cuckoo (Scythrops Novæhollandiæ.
• noun (Zoöl.) See Gannet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun nautical The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains.
• noun The physical confine of a river or slough, consisting of a bed and banks.
• noun The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.
• noun The navigable part of a river.
• noun A narrow body of water between two land masses.
• noun electronics A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.
• noun electronics The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.
• noun communication The part that connects a data source to a data sink.
• noun communication A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.
• noun communication A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.
• noun communication A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.
• noun broadcasting A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.
• noun broadcasting A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.
• noun storage The portion of a storage medium, such as a track or a band, that is accessible to a given reading or writing station or head.
• noun technic The way in a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.
• noun business, marketing A distribution channel
• noun Internet A particular area for conversations on an IRC network, analogous to a chatroom and often dedicated to a specific topic.
• noun Internet An obsolete means of delivering up-to-date Internet content.
• verb To direct the flow of something.
• verb To assume the personality of another person, typically a historic figure, in a theatrical or paranormal presentation.