Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A rivulet; a brook.
  • noun A narrow channel or course, as for water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rivulet or small brook.
  • noun An open channel for a small stream of water or other liquid.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A rivulet or small brook.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a small stream, a rivulet

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small stream

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rynel, from Old English, from rinnan, to run; see rei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

An alteration of an earlier form rinel (from Old English rynel, by assimilation with run, equivalent to run +‎ -el.

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Examples

  • I moved to his side, my finger tracing one runnel of sweat down his chest.

    My Fair Succubi Jill Myles 2011

  • I moved to his side, my finger tracing one runnel of sweat down his chest.

    My Fair Succubi Jill Myles 2011

  • Woolf was one of those authors whose "paper rivers" formed the origin of Laing's watery obsessions, and there's an intriguing correspondence between "sources": rooting in "a copse of hazel and stunted oak" to find the indefinite "clammy runnel" of the Ouse, and shuffling among original manuscripts in a bone-dry archive.

    To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface by Olivia Laing – review 2011

  • I moved to his side, my finger tracing one runnel of sweat down his chest.

    My Fair Succubi Jill Myles 2011

  • An adventuring pair of swordsman are betting on which runnel of blood will get where first, and have an argument.

    Superhero Prose Fiction: Elak - Elak Of Atlantis Blue Tyson 2008

  • It was narrow and empty, and their boots slapped through a runnel of drainage that ran down its middle.

    Behemoth Mr. Scott Westerfeld 2010

  • The “river” itself was more like a sludge channel, and trees hugged at its banks, choking it at impossible angles on either side, looking vaguely as though two armies were facing off with spindly and florid pikes, unsure who would make the first move over the brown, oily runnel between them.

    Excerpt from De Imitatio Calembouri 2010

  • As we progressed we found ourselves climbing down steeper and higher dry waterfalls, most of which provided a fissure, a runnel, a pleat of rock or an overhanging crag that allowed a relatively easy descent.

    Richard Bangs: Climbing the Killer Prince -- Merapi Volcano of Java, Part 2 Richard Bangs 2010

  • As we progressed we found ourselves climbing down steeper and higher dry waterfalls, most of which provided a fissure, a runnel, a pleat of rock or an overhanging crag that allowed a relatively easy descent.

    Richard Bangs: Climbing the Killer Prince -- Merapi Volcano of Java, Part 2 Richard Bangs 2010

  • As we progressed we found ourselves climbing down steeper and higher dry waterfalls, most of which provided a fissure, a runnel, a pleat of rock or an overhanging crag that allowed a relatively easy descent.

    Richard Bangs: Climbing the Killer Prince -- Merapi Volcano of Java, Part 2 Richard Bangs 2010

Comments

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  • It is as calm as a dream of paradise

    Out there among the trees, where runnels make

    The only music heard above the sway

    Of branches fingering the leaning moon.

    - Raymond Holden, 'Sugaring'.

    September 21, 2009