Real Dictionary

siphon
countable noun: A siphon is a tube that you use for siphoning liquid.
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.
verb: If you siphon money or resources from something, you cause them to be used for a purpose for which they were not intended.

siphon in American English
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
to convey, draw, or pass through or as if through a siphon
to draw off or carry through or as through a siphon
to pass through a siphon
noun: a tube or conduit bent into legs of unequal length, for use in drawing a liquid from one container into another on a lower level by placing the shorter leg into the container above and the longer leg into the one below, the liquid being forced up the shor

siphon in British English
noun: 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
verb: to pass or draw off through or as if through a siphon