tunnelling, -eling, vbl. n.
(ˈtʌnəlɪŋ)
[f. tunnel v. (and n.) + -ing1.]
I. The action of tunnel v.
1. The use of a tunnel-net to catch birds.
| 1687 Roy. Proclam. 30 July in Lond. Gaz. No. 2267/1 That henceforward none presume,..to Kill or Destroy any Hare, Partridge [etc.] by Hunting, Hawking,..Tunnelling, Gins, or any way whatsoever. 1796 Anstey Pleader's Guide (1803) 129 Acts 'gainst tunneling and snaring. 1819 Sporting Mag. IV. 208 It is neither very dark nor very light, in tunnelling for partridges. |
2. a. The work or process of making a tunnel; excavation of, or by, a tunnel.
| 1810 J. T. in Risdon's Surv. Devon p. xxix, This is the Tavistock canal, which is..attended with the grand operations of tunnelling. 1871 Proctor Light Sc. 153 Any inaccuracy in the direction of the two tunnellings would have been fatal to the success of the work. |
| attrib. 1812 Sir R. Wilson Diary in Life (1862) I. 377 The excavations are certainly some of nature's most surprising tunnelling achievements. 1871 Daily News 25 Apr., A new tunnelling machine..was exhibited at the meeting of the British Association last year. |
† b. The lining of a shaft or pit with tubbing.
| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. ii. 98 The Art of tunnelling much used in Cheshire to keep out the freshes. |
3. Physics. The quantum-mechanical process whereby a particle has a non-zero probability of penetrating a finite potential barrier even if it has less energy than the height of the barrier.
| 1938 S. Dushman Elem. Quantum Mech. iii. 68 The ‘tunneling effect’..is one of the most important deductions contributed by the new quantum mechanics. 1970 New Scientist 1 Oct. 38/2 Tunnelling is a phenomenon particular to quantum mechanics. 1978 P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. xiii. 402 The particle might be found on the outside of a container, even though according to classical physics it has insufficient energy to escape. This passage through classically forbidden zones is called tunnelling. |
II. 4. concr. Work of the nature of a tunnel; subterranean excavation for a canal, road, or railway; a tunnel, or tunnels collectively.
| 1795 J. Phillips Hist. Inland Navig. Add. 131 Another navigable cut.., principally tunneling, will shorten the line four miles. 1798 Monthly Mag. July 74, 900 yards of tunneling. 1894 Daily News 22 Jan. 4/8 One of the fat, pink, repulsive-looking grubs, coiled up in one of the wide tunnellings that have ruined the tree. |