Definition of "gunnel" [gun•nel]

• Any of various small, elongated fishes of the family Pholidae, common in the tidal pools and coastal waters of northern seas. (noun)
• Variant of gunwale. (noun)

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.

• "Course we did have no seein 'glass on her, but all that showed above the gunnel was a piece of reed mat."
• "There were not nearly enough boats to take the crowd across if they crossed back and forth all day, so my mother, Eliza, improvised a boat or 'gunnel', as the craft was called, by placing a wooden soap box on top of a long pole, then she pulled off her shoes and, taking two of us small children in her arms, she paddled with her feet and put us safely across the stream."
• "It is super stable and I can stand on the gunnel loaded with gear and it only leans a bit."