Definition of "funnel" []

• 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. (noun)
• Something resembling this utensil in shape. (noun)
• A shaft, flue, or stack for ventilation or the passage of smoke, especially the smokestack of a ship or locomotive. (noun)
• To take the shape of a funnel. (verb-intransitive)
• To move through or as if through a funnel: tourists funneling slowly through customs. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Lodged in the funnel is an ice cube. when it melts and flows into the cup the cup overflows."
• "On the server site, the side where the web page rests, the funnel is at its widest, though its width is controlled by the speed of the machine that hosts the web page."
• "The tricky thing about this operation, as I was watching this B roll, is that with responses that involve campus attacks, you've got thousands -- hundreds, if not thousands of people running out in what we call a funnel to go with their instincts, which is to get out of the actual area of incidence."