From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Canal \Ca*nal"\, noun [F. canal, from L. canalis canal, channel; prob. from a root signifying ''to cut''; cf. D. kanaal, fr. the French. Cf. {Channel}, {Kennel} gutter.]
1. An artificial channel filled with water and designed for navigation, or for irrigating land, etc.
2. (Anat.) A tube or duct; as, the alimentary canal; the semicircular canals of the ear.
3. A long and relatively narrow arm of the sea, approximately uniform in width; -- used chiefly in proper names; as, Portland Canal; Lynn Canal. [Alaska] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Canal boat}, a boat for use on a canal; esp. one of peculiar shape, carrying freight, and drawn by horses walking on the towpath beside the canal.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: (astronomy) an indistinct surface feature of Mars once thought to be a system of channels; they are now believed to be an optical illusion
2: a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance; "the tear duct was obstructed"; "the alimentary canal"; "poison is released through a channel in the snake's fangs" [syn: {duct}, {epithelial duct}, {channel}]
3: long and narrow strip of water made for boats or for irrigation
verb
1: provide (a city) with a canal [syn: {canalize}, {canalise}] [also: {canalling}, {canalled}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
104 Moby Thesaurus words for "canal": Eustachian tube, Fallopian tube, aqueduct, arroyo, bed, bottleneck, canalization, canalize, carve, chamfer, channel, chisel, conduit, corrugate, course, crack, creek bed, crimp, culvert, cut, dado, defile, dike, ditch, donga, dry bed, duct, emunctory, engrave, entrenchment, fistula, flume, flute, fosse, furrow, gash, goffer, gouge, groove, gulch, gully, gullyhole, gutter, ha-ha, headrace, incise, intestines, irrigation ditch, isthmus, kennel, meatus, moat, narrow, narrows, neck, nullah, ostium, oviduct, pass, pleat, plow, pore, rabbet, race, rifle, river bed, riverway, runnel, rut, salpinx, score, scratch, slit, sluice, spillbox, spillway, strait, streak, stream bed, streamway, striate, sunk fence, swash, swash channel, tailrace, thoracic duct, throat, trench, trough, ureter, urethra, vagina, vas, vessel, wadi, water carrier, water channel, water furrow, water gap, water gate, watercourse, waterway, waterworks, wrinkle
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