funnel

noun

1. A utensil in the shape of an inverted hollow cone terminating in a narrow pipe, for channeling liquids or granular material; typically used when transferring said substances from any container into ones with a significantly smaller opening.
2. A passage or avenue for a fluid or flowing substance; specifically, a smoke flue or pipe; the chimney of a steamship or the like.
3. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, figuratively)Ellipsis of purchase funnel (“the process of customer acquisition conceptualized as a series of stages, from initial awareness (top) to sale or conversion (bottom)”).

   “top of (the) funnel marketing”

   “Then there's the funnel. Marketing usually spends most of their time at the top of the funnel with a quantity strategy. On the other hand, Sales spends their time trying to convert, accelerate, or close accounts that are in the middle or bottom of the funnel.”

4. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of funnel cloud.
5. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of fummel (“hybrid animal”).

verb

1. (transitive)To use a funnel.
2. (intransitive)To proceed through a narrow gap or passageway akin to a funnel; to condense or narrow.

   “Expect delays where the traffic funnels down to one lane.”

   “2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text A line of clocks in our cheap hotel displays the time in Lagos, Bucharest, Kiev: the capitals of pilgrims who come to kneel at the birthplace of Christ. In reality the entire world funnels through the Church of the Nativity.”

3. (transitive)To channel, direct, or focus (emotions, money, resources, etc.).

   “Our taxes are being funnelled into pointless government initiatives.”

   “Like so many others, I was awestruck by the first season, which captured a moment in time and successfully funnelled its rage outwards at a world in which women are indeed silenced, controlled and killed by men.”

   “The Soviet Union had a substantially larger land army, considerably larger than NATO and the U.S.,” Sharpless said. […]So, one strategy was to block various access routes and perhaps funnel them into an area where you could use larger weapons against them.”

   “He was alive to every creak and dunt, the thinness of the walls, as if the tenement block was a kind of aural panopticon that funnelled every sound to the other residents, let everyone eavesdrop on their business.”

4. (transitive)To consume (beer, etc.) rapidly through a funnel, typically as a stunt at a party.

   “The first time he did it was to this freshman Kevin Ryers and we all just burst out laughing, watching Kevin try to funnel a beer.”