ca·nal (k?-n?l?)n.1. An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.2. Anatomy A tube, duct, or passageway.3. Astronomy One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars.tr.v. ca·nalled, ca·nal·ling, ca·nals or ca·naled or ca·nal·ing 1. To dig an artificial waterway through: canal an isthmus.2. To provide with an artificial waterway or waterways.[Partly French, channel, and partly Middle English, tube (from Medieval Latin can?le), both from Latin can?lis, tube, channel, probably from canna, small reed; see cane.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.canal (k??næl) n1. (Civil Engineering) an artificial waterway constructed for navigation, irrigation, water power, etc2. (Zoology) any of various tubular passages or ducts: the alimentary canal. 3. (Botany) any of various elongated intercellular spaces in plants4. (Astronomy) astronomy any of the indistinct surface features of Mars originally thought to be a network of channels but not seen on close-range photographs. They are caused by an optical illusion in which faint geological features appear to have a geometric structurevb (tr) , -nals, -nalling or -nalled, -nals, -naling or -naled5. (Civil Engineering) to dig a canal through6. to provide with a canal or canals[C15 (in the sense: pipe, tube): from Latin can?lis channel, water pipe, from canna reed, cane1]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014ca?nal (k??næl) n., v. -nalled -naled, -nal?ling -nal?ing. n. 1. an artificial waterway for navigation, irrigation, etc. 2. a tubular passage for food, air, etc., in an animal or plant; duct. 3. channel; watercourse. 4. one of the long, dark lines on the planet Mars, as viewed from Earth. v.t. 5. to make a canal through. [1400?50; late Middle English: waterpipe, tubular passage