Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Channel \Chan"nel\, 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.

   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.

   3. (Geog.) A strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of
      lands; as, the British Channel.

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

            The veins are converging channels.    --Dalton.

            At best, he is but a channel to convey to the
            National assembly such matter as may import that
            body to know.                         --Burke.

   5. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.

   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.

   {Channel bar}, {Channel iron} (Arch.), an iron bar or beam
      having a section resembling a flat gutter or channel.

   {Channel bill} (Zo["o]l.), a very large Australian cuckoo
      ({Scythrops Nov[ae]hollandi[ae]}.

   {Channel goose}. (Zo["o]l.) See {Gannet}.