[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

channel \chan"nel\, v. t. imp.  p. p. channeled, or
   channelled; p. pr.  vb. n. channeling, or
   channelling.
   1. to form a channel in; to cut or wear a channel or channels
      in; to groove.
      1913 webster

            no more shall trenching war channel her fields.
                                                  --shak.
      1913 webster

   2. to course through or over, as in a channel. --cowper.
      1913 webster
see also:
channeled channelled channeling channelling 

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

channel \chan"nel\ cha^n"ne^l, n. oe. chanel, canel, of.
   chanel, f. chenel, fr. l. canalis. see canal.
   1. the hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run.
      1913 webster

   2. the deeper part of a river, harbor, strait, etc., where
      the main current flows, or which affords the best and
      safest passage for vessels.
      1913 webster

   3. geog. a strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of
      lands; as, the british channel.
      1913 webster

   4. that through which anything passes; a means of passing,
      conveying, or transmitting; as, the news was conveyed to
      us by different channels.
      1913 webster

            the veins are converging channels.    --dalton.
      1913 webster

            at best, he is but a channel to convey to the
            national assembly such matter as may import that
            body to know.                         --burke.
      1913 webster

   5. a gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
      1913 webster

   6. pl. cf. chain wales. 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.
      1913 webster

   7. pl. official routes of communication, especially the
      official means by which information should be transmitted
      in a bureaucracy; as, to submit a request through
      channels; you have to go through channels.
      pjc

   8. 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; as, channel 2 in new york is owned by cbs.
      pjc

   9. 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.
      pjc

   10. cell biology an opening in a cell membrane which serves
       to actively transport or allow passive transport of
       substances across the membrane; as, an ion channel in a
       nerve cell.
       pjc

   11. computers a path for transmission of signals between
       devices within a computer or between a computer and an
       external device; as, a dma channel.
       pjc

   channel bar, channel iron arch., an iron bar or beam
      having a section resembling a flat gutter or channel.

   channel bill zool., a very large australian cuckoo
      scythrops novaehollandiae.

   channel goose. zool. see gannet.
      1913 webster
see also:
canal chain wales channel bar channel iron channel bill scythrops novaehollandiae 
channel goose gannet 

[3] : WordNet (r) 2.0

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 snake's 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 company's 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
     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: conduct, transmit,
           convey, carry
     2: direct the flow of; "channel infomartion 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
     also: channelling, channelled
see also:
transmission channel groove communication channel line duct epithelial duct 
canal television channel tv channel distribution channel conduct 
transmit convey carry canalize canalise 
transfer transport channelize channelise channelling 
channelled 

[4] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

248 moby thesaurus words for "channel":
   edp, access, adolescent stream, adviser, aisle, alley,
   amateur band, ambulatory, announcer, annunciator, aperture,
   approach, approaches, aqueduct, arcade, arroyo, artery, authority,
   avenue, band, basin, beck, bed, bit, blowhole, bottleneck, bottom,
   bourn, braided stream, branch, brook, brooklet, burn, canal,
   canalization, canalize, carry, carve, chamfer, channelize, chisel,
   chute, citizens band, cloister, colonnade, communicant,
   communication, communication explosion, communication theory,
   communicator, conduct, conduit, connection, convey, corridor,
   corrugate, coulee, course, covered way, crack, creek, crick, crimp,
   cut, dado, data retrieval, data storage, debouch, decoding, defile,
   dike, direct, ditch, door, duct, egress,
   electronic data processing, emunctory, encoding, engrave,
   enlightener, entrenchment, entropy, escape, estuary, exhaust, exit,
   expert witness, fairway, ferry, floodgate, floor, flowing stream,
   flume, flute, fluviation, ford, fosse, frequency band, fresh,
   freshet, funnel, furrow, gallery, gash, gill, goffer, gossipmonger,
   gouge, grapevine, groove, ground, guide, gully, gutter, ha-ha,
   incise, informant, information center, information explosion,
   information medium, information theory, informer, inlet,
   interchange, intersection, interviewee, isthmus, junction, kennel,
   kill, lane, lazy stream, lead, loophole, meandering stream, means,
   medium, midchannel, midstream, millstream, moat, monitor,
   mouthpiece, moving road, narrow, narrows, navigable river, neck,
   newsmonger, noise, notifier, ocean bottom, opening, out, outcome,
   outfall, outgate, outgo, outlet, overpass, pass, passage,
   passageway, path, pipe, pipeline, pleat, plow, police band, pore,
   port, portico, press, public relations officer, publisher,
   put through, put through channels, rabbet, race, racing stream,
   radio, radio channel, railroad tunnel, redundancy, reporter, rifle,
   river, rivulet, road, run, rundle, runlet, runnel, rut, sally port,
   score, scratch, sea lane, seaway, ship route, shortwave band,
   signal, sike, siphon, slit, sluice, source, spill stream, spiracle,
   spokesman, spout, standard band, steamer track, strait, streak,
   stream, stream action, streamlet, striate, subterranean river,
   sunk fence, tap, television, teller, throat, tipster, tout,
   traject, trajet, transmit, trench, trough, tube, tunnel, underpass,
   vent, ventage, venthole, vomitory, wadi, watercourse, waterway,
   way, way out, weir, witness, wrinkle

[5] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

channel n. irc the basic unit of discussion on irc. once one joins
   a channel, everything one types is read by others on that channel.
   channels are named with strings that begin with a `' sign and can have
   topic descriptions which are generally irrelevant to the actual subject
   of discussion. some notable channels are `initgame', `hottub',
   `callahans', and `report'. at times of international crisis, `report'
   has hundreds of members, some of whom take turns listening to various
   news services and typing in summaries of the news, or in some cases,
   giving first-hand accounts of the action e.g., scud missile attacks in
   tel aviv during the gulf war in 1991.


see also:
irc 

[6] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

channel
     
         or "chat room", "room", depending on the system in
        question the basic unit of group discussion in chat systems
        like irc.  once one joins a channel, everything one types is
        read by others on that channel.  channels can either be named
        with numbers or with strings that begin with a "" sign and
        can have topic descriptions which are generally irrelevant to
        the actual subject of discussion.
     
        some notable channels are "initgame", "hottub" and
        "report".  at times of international crisis, "report" has
        hundreds of members, some of whom take turns listening to
        various news services and typing in summaries of the news, or
        in some cases, giving first-hand accounts of the action
        e.g. scud missile attacks in tel aviv during the gulf war in
        1991.
     
        jargon file
     
        1998-01-25
     
     
see also:
chat irc jargon file 

[7] : Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

channel
   1. the bed of the sea or of a river ps. 18:15; isa. 8:7.
   
     2. the "chanelbone" job 31:22 marg., properly "tube" or
   "shaft," an old term for the collar-bone.
   

Channel >> C Words
Channel, definition of term: Channel
channel_pag1.html

Channel Service >> C Words
Channel Service, definition of term: Channel Service
channel+service_pag1.html

Channel Capacit >> C Words
Channel Capacit, definition of term: Channel Capacit
channel+capacit_pag1.html