Sc. (Ir.) and north. Forms: 5– vennel, 5 venal(e, 6 wennall, -el, 6–9 vennell, 7 venel, 7–9 vennal, 8 vennile; 7 vinell, 9 vinnel. [a. OF. venele, venelle, vanelle (mod.F. venelle):—Rom. type *vēnella (med.L. venella), dim. of L. vēna vein.]
1. A narrow lane, passage or thoroughfare in a town or city; an alley or wynd. Chiefly Sc.
1435. in Laing Charters (1899), 30. A land in the west gate lyand neste the comoune vennel.
1439. Charters, etc., of Edinb. (1871), 64. The comon venale callit Sanct Leonardis wynde.
1477. Extr. Aberd. Rec. (1844), I. 36. That the alderman … pass through the toune to see the venalis that are closit.
1531. Abst. Protocols Town Clerks of Glasgow, IV. (1897), 43. The common wennel of the Gray Freris.
1562. in Archæol. Æliana (1856), I. 41. Two burgages or tenements lying together in Spycer Lane, abutting on a vennel called the Stonye Hyll.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 155. Gif ther be any venels stopped, or bigged vp.
1706. in D. M‘Naught, Kilmaurs (1912), xix. 251. To send one man out of every house wt. ther horses wtin ye toune to repair the high wayes and venniles.
1727. Rec. Elgin (New Spald. Cl.), I. 425. The vennell or wynd called Lossie or Carman’s wynd.
c. 1774. D. Graham, Writ. (1883), I. 101. Some through Preston vennal fled.
1859. W. Anderson, Disc., Ser. II. (1860), 106. When he is away to hold the prayer-meeting down the Vennel.
1879. N. & Q., 5th Ser. XI. 137/1. In the town of Strabane, Ireland, there are a number of narrow passages, called ‘vennels,’ from the main street to the river shore.
2. north. An open drain or gutter; a sewer.
1641. in Heslop, Northumbld. Wds., s.v., Paid Strother for making cleane the common vennell before Widdow Wilson’s doore, 1s.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, Vennel, a gutter, called the kennel … elsewhere. Northumb.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Vennel, a sewer.
1881. Sargisson, Joe Scoap, 93 (E.D.D.). Carry’t t’ watter off beaath ways inteh t’ vennels.
