canal

Pluralcanals

Formscanals, canalling, canalled

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A human-made water channel dug for boats, shipping, or watering fields.

   Like a long ditch full of water that boats can travel on.

   The canal was busy with boats carrying coal to the city.

   Farmers use the canal to bring water to their dry fields.

   Similarwaterway, channel, cut

   Note
2. 2
   nouncountable

   A tube-shaped passage inside the body or inside a plant.

   Like a small pipe inside the body that things can pass through.

   The doctor examined the narrow canal in her ear.

   Water travels through tiny canals inside the plant's stem.

   Similarduct, channel, passage, tube

   Note
3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To dig a waterway across or into a place, often to drain water away.

   Like cutting a small channel in mud so the water runs away.

   Workers plan to canal the marsh so the land can be farmed.

   They canaled the low fields to carry off the floodwater.

   Similardrain, ditch, channel

   Note
4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To make a journey by boat along a canal.

   We rented a small boat to canal past the farms and villages on Saturday.

   We canaled all the way to the next town.

   Similarcruise, boat, sail

   Note
5. 5
   nouncountable

   One of the faint straight lines that early astronomers thought they saw on Mars.

   Like seeing shapes in clouds that are not really there.

   Through his telescope, the astronomer believed he saw a canal stretching across Mars.

   Maps from that time showed many canals crisscrossing the red planet.

   Note

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