runway vs tunnel

runway

noun
  • A defined, narrow section of land or an artificial structure used for access. 

  • In javelin, long jump, and similar events: a short track along which athletes can accelerate themselves for their jumps or throws. 

  • A stream bed. 

  • Hence, the number of months that a startup company can operate by using up its cash reserves. 

  • The usual path taken by deer or other wild animals, such as from a forest to a water source. 

  • A narrow walkway (often on a platform) extending from a stage on which people walk, especially one used by models during fashion shows. 

  • A section of land, usually paved, for airplanes to land on or take off from. 

tunnel

noun
  • A passage through or under some obstacle. 

  • An underground or underwater passage. 

  • A hole in the ground made by an animal, a burrow. 

  • A level passage driven across the measures, or at right angles to veins which it is desired to reach; distinguished from the drift, or gangway, which is led along the vein when reached by the tunnel. 

  • The opening of a chimney for the passage of smoke; a flue. 

  • A wrapper for a protocol that cannot otherwise be used because it is unsupported, blocked, or insecure. 

  • Anything that resembles a tunnel. 

  • A vessel with a broad mouth at one end, a pipe or tube at the other, for conveying liquor, fluids, etc., into casks, bottles, or other vessels; a funnel. 

verb
  • To make a tunnel through or under something; to burrow. 

  • To transmit something through a tunnel (wrapper for insecure or unsupported protocol). 

  • To insert a catheter into a vein to allow long-term use. 

  • To undergo the quantum-mechanical phenomenon where a particle penetrates through a barrier that it classically cannot surmount. 

  • To dig a tunnel. 

How often have the words runway and tunnel occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )