channel (n.)

  1. a path over which electrical signals can pass; a channel is typically what you rent from a telephone company

    [ Syn: transmission channel ]

  2. a passage for water (or other fluids) to flow through; the fields were crossed with irrigation channels; gutters carried off the rainwater into a series of channels under the street'

  3. a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record)

    [ Syn: groove ]

  4. a deep and relatively narrow body of water (as in a river or a harbor or a strait linking two larger bodies) that allows the best passage for vessels; the ship went aground in the channel'

  5. (often plural) a means of communication or access; it must go through official channels; lines of communication were set up between the two firms

    [ Syn: communication channel , line ]

  6. a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance; the tear duct was obstructed; the alimentary canal; poison is released through a channel in the snakes fangs

    [ Syn: duct , epithelial duct , canal ]

  7. a television station and its programs; a satellite TV channel; surfing through the channels; they offer more than one hundred channels

    [ Syn: television channel , tv channel ]

  8. a way of selling a companys product either directly or via distributors; possible distribution channels are wholesalers or small retailers or retail chains or direct mailers or your own stores

    [ Syn: distribution channel ]

    channel (v.)

  1. transmit or serve as the medium for transmission; Sound carries well over water; The airwaves carry the sound; Many metals conduct heat

    [ Syn: impart , conduct , transmit , convey , carry ]

  2. direct the flow of; channel information towards a broad audience

    [ Syn: canalize , canalise ]

  3. send from one person or place to another; transmit a message

    [ Syn: transmit , transfer , transport , channelize , channelise ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.