Channelled

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To facilitate the movement or transmission of ideas and energies through a particular medium or pathway
2. Moved or guided something along a specific route or course ; sent or passed information or energy through a conduit or medium
3. Directed a flow or movement into a designated channel or area ; conveyed messages, signals, or forces through an intermediary form

Etymology: "Channelled" is the British spelling of "channeled," and the two forms share one history. The verb comes from "channel," a noun that entered English from Old French "chanel," itself descended from Latin "canalis," meaning a pipe, conduit or water-course. The image is literal: a channel is a bed or passage through which water flows, and the verb grew out of that picture of directing a flow along a fixed course. The sense the definition describes, guiding ideas or energy through a medium, is a figurative extension of that physical meaning. Once people spoke of a river being channelled between banks, it was a short step to speaking of talent, money or emotion being channelled toward a goal. The doubling of the final consonant in the British form follows the usual rule for verbs ending in a single consonant after a stressed-looking vowel, which is why "travelled" and "marvelled" are spelled the same way.

Synonyms: directed, guided, steered

Antonyms: misguided, lost, diverted