Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular presenttense siphons, present participle siphoning, past tense, past participle siphoned
1. verb
If you siphon liquid from a container, you make it come out through a tube and down into a lower container by enabling gravity to push it out.
She puts a piece of plastic tubing in her mouth and starts siphoning gas from a hugemetal drum. [VERB noun preposition]
Tell Mac to siphon petrol out of his wagon. [VERB noun preposition]
[Also VERB noun]
Siphon off means the same as siphon.
Surgeons siphoned off fluid from his left lung. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
The water had to be siphoned off. [VERBPARTICLE noun (not pronoun)]
[Also VERB noun PARTICLE]
2. countable noun
A siphon is a tube that you use for siphoning liquid.
3. verb
If you siphon money or resources from something, you cause them to be used for a purpose for which they were not intended.
He had siphoned thousands of pounds a week from the failing business. [VERB noun preposition]
They siphon foreign aid money into their personal bank accounts. [VERB noun preposition]
Siphon off means the same as siphon.
He had siphoned off a small fortune in aid money from the United Nations. [VERBPARTICLE noun]
[Also VERB noun PARTICLE]
siphon in British English
or syphon (ˈsaɪfən)
noun
1.
a tube placed with one end at a certain level in a vessel of liquid and the other end outside the vessel below this level, so that liquid pressure forces the liquid through the tube and out of the vessel by gravity
2. soda siphon
3. zoology
any of various tubular organs in different aquatic animals, such as molluscs and elasmobranch fishes, through which a fluid, esp water, passes
verb
4. (often foll by off)
to pass or draw off through or as if through a siphon
Derived forms
siphonage (ˈsiphonage)
noun
siphonal (ˈsiphonal) or siphonic (saɪˈfɒnɪk)
adjective
Word origin
C17: from Latin sīphō, from Greek siphōn siphon
siphon in American English
(ˈsaɪfən)
noun
1.
a bent tube used for carrying liquid from a reservoir over the top edge of its container to a point below the surface of the reservoir: the tube must be filled, as by suction, before flow will start
2.
siphon bottle
3.
a tubelike organ in some animals, as cuttlefishes, used for drawing in or ejecting liquids
verb transitive
4.
to draw off or carry through or as through a siphon
verb intransitive
5.
to pass through a siphon
Derived forms
siphonal (ˈsiphonal) (ˈsaɪfənəl)
adjective or siˈphonic (saɪˈfɑnɪk)
Word origin
Fr < L sipho (gen. siphonis) < Gr siphōn, tube, siphon
Examples of 'siphon' in a sentence
siphon
Instead select people siphoned off the money, returning it to the vaults of western banks.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
Shareholders are also pressing: they see the bank levy as billions of pounds of their money being siphoned off.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
The pair are said to have pinched the keys to the base's fuel pumps and siphoned off thousands of gallons.
The Sun (2007)
Money is being siphoned off.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
No money was siphoned off,' she said.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
But it's wrong that their money is simply siphoned into the party's coffers.
The Sun (2013)
The more money that is siphoned into prisons for emergency short-term fixes, the less is available elsewhere.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Now we learn a massive 8.5 BILLION has been siphoned off to bail out schools and hospitals.
The Sun (2006)
An unspecified and unlimited amount of investors' money is siphoned off in fees to at least a dozen different agents, from administrators to brokers.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
In other languages
siphon
British English: siphon VERB
If you siphon liquid from a container, you make it come out through a tube and down into a lower container by enabling the pressure of the air on it to push it out.
She siphons the gas from a huge metal drum.
American English: siphon
Brazilian Portuguese: extrair com sifão
Chinese: 用虹吸管抽吸
European Spanish: trasvasar
French: siphonner
German: absaugen
Italian: aspirare
Japanese: >吸い上げるサイフォンで
Korean: 흡입관으로 빼내다
European Portuguese: extrair com sifão
Latin American Spanish: trasvasar
British English: siphon NOUN
A siphon is a tube that you use for siphoning liquid.