funnel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A conical utensil having a small hole or narrow tube at the apex and used to channel the flow of a substance, as into a small-mouthed container.
2. n. Something resembling this utensil in shape.
3. n. A shaft, flue, or stack for ventilation or the passage of smoke, especially the smokestack of a ship or locomotive.
4. v. To take the shape of a funnel.
5. v. To move through or as if through a funnel: tourists funneling slowly through customs.
6. v. To cause to take the shape of a funnel.
7. v. To cause to move through or as if through a funnel.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A hollow cone or conical vessel, usually of tin or other metal, with a tube issuing from its apex, used for conveying fluids into a vessel with a small opening; a filler.
2. n. A passage for a fluid or vapor, as the shaft or channel of a chimney through which smoke ascends; specifically, in steamships and locomotives, an iron chimney for the boiler-furnaces; the smoke-stack.
3. n. Nautical, a metal cylinder fitted on the topgallant- and royalmastheads of men-of-war, on which the eyes of the topgallant- and royal-rigging are fitted.
4. n. In anatomy and biology, an infundibulum: as, the funnel of a cuttlefish. Specifically— In Ctenophora, an infundibuliform space in which the stomach sinks through a narrow canal which can be closed by muscles.
5. n. In the Rhizocarpæ, a space between the thick outer coats of the macrospore, into which the apical papilla projects.
6. n. In the chambered cephalopods, the extension of the septum about the siphuncle.

Wiktionary

1. n. A utensil of the shape of an inverted hollow cone, terminating below in a pipe, and used for conveying liquids etc. into a close vessel; a tunnel.
2. n. A passage or avenue for a fluid or flowing substance; specifically, a smoke flue or pipe; the chimney of a steamship or the like.
3. v. To use a funnel.
4. v. To proceed through a narrow gap or passageway akin to a funnel; to narrow or condense.
5. v. transitive To direct (money or resources).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A vessel of the shape of an inverted hollow cone, terminating below in a pipe, and used for conveying liquids or pourable solids into a vessel with a narrow opening; a tunnel.
2. n. A passage or avenue for a fluid or flowing substance; specifically, a smoke flue or pipe; the iron chimney of a steamship or the like.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (nautical) smokestack consisting of a shaft for ventilation or the passage of smoke (especially the smokestack of a ship)
2. n. a conical shape with a wider and a narrower opening at the two ends
3. v. move or pour through a funnel
4. n. a conically shaped utensil having a narrow tube at the small end; used to channel the flow of substances into a container with a small mouth