▪ I. runnel, n.1
(ˈrʌn(ə)l)
Also 6–7, 9 dial. runnell, 7 runnil(l.
[Later form (after run v.) of rinel rindle n. See also rundle2.]
1. A small stream of water; a brooklet, rivulet, rill, or trickle.
| 1577 in Hakluyt Voy. (1904) VII. 229 The water..sinketh into the earth and so vanisheth away, without any runnell above the earth. 1600 Fairfax Tasso xii. lxvii, With murmur lowd downe from the mountaines side A little runnell tumbled neere the place. 1656 Rec. Braintree, Mass. (1886) 7 This way..formerly going up the rockes straight from the runnill of water in the country highway. 1747 Collins Passions 63 Dashing soft from rocks around, Bubbling runnels join'd the sound. 1784 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1868) 51 Vathek applied his ear with the hope of catching the sound of some latent runnel. 1817 Scott Harold vi. xvii, He placed her on a bank of moss, A silver runnel bubbled by. 1856 Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 110 The groves of the orchard, watered by crossing runnels from the river. 1883 C. Davies Norfolk Broads xxvi. 198 Herons stand in the little runnels which trickle over the flats. |
| fig. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. vi. 322 The wickedness of mankind..confused the pure stream of the fountain with its muddy runnels. 1865 A. Smith Summer in Skye I. 243 Ossian drew into himself every lyrical runnel. |
2. A small watercourse or channel; a gutter.
| 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 296 The rain..is carryed away by runnels. 1863 M. Howitt tr. Bremer's Greece II. xiv. 102 A clear stream of water flowed..into a stone runnel along the floor. 1883 Fortn. Rev. July 144 Small runnels are generally chiselled for the purpose of conducting the water into the cistern. |
3. dial. A funnel.
| 1868– in Yorkshire glossaries. |
Hence ˈrunnelling a., forming a runnel.
| 1849 A. J. Symington Harebell Chimes 140 A little mountain girl..Sings to the runneling brook, alone. |
▪ II. ˈrunnel, n.2 dial.
Also 8–9 runnell.
[Of doubtful origin: cf. rundle1 8.]
Pollard wood, or a shoot of this; a pollard or stunted tree.
| 1674 Ray N.C. Words, Runnel, pollard wood, from running up apace. 1829 Brockett N.C. Gloss. (ed. 2) 252 Runnel, pollard wood. 1861 W. Barnes in Macm. Mag. June 127 If an ash-tree is polled, there grow out of its head..young runnells. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-Bk., Runnel, an old stunted tree, usually a pollard, and hollow. |
▪ III. runnel, v.
(ˈrʌn(ə)l)
[f. runnel1.]
trans. To form streams or channels in (a surface); to channel or furrow. Hence ˈrunnelled ppl. a. Cf. runnelling a.
| 1933 G. Barker Thirty Preliminary Poems 13 And sparkling veins Escape in dark wooded places Runnelling like willow trees The lachrymose moist soil. 1947 New Writing XXXI. 164 Their faces were black with coal dust, runnelled with sweat. 1970 R. J. Small Study of Landforms ix. 309 These pediments were..usually ‘runnelled’, and dissections of up to 15–20 ft in depth were not uncommon. 1977 P. Scupham Hinterland 19 A disenfranchised demon wears His runnelled face in sour grotesque, A conduit for the tumbling skies. |