tunnelist

plural tunnelists · alternative tunnellist

1. Someone who digs tunnels, especially as a hobby.

   The tunnelist showed me the cellar he'd dug beneath his house.

   2 more examples

   Details about the backyard tunnel in Queensland revealed by Calgary police today are scarce — we know it was an alleged storehouse for stolen goods, and little else. But building a 30-foot tunnel is a huge amount of work, even more so if you're trying to keep it secret, as the famous Toronto tunnelist proved.

   2016 April 12, “How did he do it? Building a backyard tunnel is no easy task”, in Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alb.: Postmedia Network Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Jun 2016

   Spending hours heaving dirt and rocks from the ground might seem like an unusual pastime, but it has a history: Hobby tunnelists of yore include the Fifth Duke of Portland, who in the 19th century built an underground ballroom on his property, and, more recently, the so-called mole man of London, who spent 40 years making tunnels before he was discovered.

   2024 January 18, Amanda Holpuch, “The TikTok 'Tunnel Girl' Is Not Alone”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2024