# funnel
## English
### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈfʌnəl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌnəl

### Etymology 1

From Middle English funell, fonel, probably through Old French *founel (compare Middle French fonel, Old Occitan fonilh, enfounilh), from Latin fundibulum, infundibulum (“funnel”), from infundere (“to pour in”); in (“in”) + fundere (“to pour”); compare Breton founilh (“funnel”), Welsh ffynel (“air hole, chimney”). See fuse.

#### Noun

funnel (plural funnels)
* A utensil in the shape of an inverted hollow cone terminating in a narrow pipe, for channeling liquids or granular material; typically used when transferring said substances from any container into ones with a significantly smaller opening.
* A passage or avenue for a fluid or flowing substance; specifically, a smoke flue or pipe; the chimney of a steamship or the like.
* (marketing, figurative) Ellipsis of purchase funnel: the process of customer acquisition conceptualized as a series of stages, from initial awareness (top) to sale or conversion (bottom).
    top of (the) funnel marketing ― awareness stage marketing
** 2019, Chris Golec, Peter Isaacson, Jessica Fewless, Account-Based Marketing: How to Target and Engage the Companies That Will Grow Your Revenue, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 41:Then there's the funnel. Marketing usually spends most of their time at the top of the funnel with a quantity strategy. On the other hand, Sales spends their time trying to convert, accelerate, or close accounts that are in the middle or bottom of the funnel.
* (meteorology) Ellipsis of funnel cloud.

##### Derived terms

* araneomorph funnel-web spider
* Büchner funnel
* cytofunnel
* dung funnel
* Emlen funnel
* filter funnel
* funnel box
* funnel cake
* funnel chanterelle
* funnel chart
* funnel chest
* funnel cloud
* funnelform
* funnelless
* funnellike
* funnel mark
* funnel plot
* funnel-shaped, funnelshaped
* funnel stay
* funnel trap
* funnel weaver
* funnel-web
* funnel web
* funnel-web spider
* funnelwise
* Hirsch funnel
* metafunnel
* pie funnel
* purchase funnel
* separating funnel
* Sydney funnel-web spider
* thistle funnel
* weighing funnel

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

##### See also

* tundish

#### Verb

funnel (third-person singular simple present funnels, present participle funnelling or funneling, simple past and past participle funnelled or funneled)
* (transitive) To use a funnel.
* (intransitive) To proceed through a narrow gap or passageway akin to a funnel; to condense or narrow.
    Expect delays where the traffic funnels down to one lane.
** 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)
    A line of clocks in our cheap hotel displays the time in Lagos, Bucharest, Kiev: the capitals of pilgrims who come to kneel at the birthplace of Christ. In reality the entire world funnels through the Church of the Nativity.
* (transitive) To channel, direct, or focus (emotions, money, resources, etc.).
    Our taxes are being funnelled into pointless government initiatives.
** 2018 June 16, Fiona Sturges, “Cattleprods! Severed tongues! Torture porn! Why I’ve stopped watching the Handmaid’s Tale”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 February 2020:Like so many others, I was awestruck by the first season, which captured a moment in time and successfully funnelled its rage outwards at a world in which women are indeed silenced, controlled and killed by men.
** 2019 January 7, Paul Srubas, “His job was to place atomic bombs. Place them, not drop them. Set the timer. Run like hell.”, in Green Bay Press-Gazette‎:The Soviet Union had a substantially larger land army, considerably larger than NATO and the U.S.,” Sharpless said. […] So, one strategy was to block various access routes and perhaps funnel them into an area where you could use larger weapons against them.
** 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 274:He was alive to every creak and dunt, the thinness of the walls, as if the tenement block was a kind of aural panopticon that funnelled every sound to the other residents, let everyone eavesdrop on their business.
* (transitive) To consume (beer, etc.) rapidly through a funnel, typically as a stunt at a party.
** 2013, Jonathan Caren, The Recommendation, page 31:The first time he did it was to this freshman Kevin Ryers and we all just burst out laughing, watching Kevin try to funnel a beer.

##### Derived terms

* refunnel

##### Translations
### Etymology 2
#### Noun

funnel (plural funnels)
* Alternative form of fummel (“hybrid animal”)