Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the throat.

1713		R.D. Blackmore Creation VI: Some the long funnels curious mouth extend, Through which the ingested meats with ease descend [F&H].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Jan. 14/1: I have never seen one quicker / In disposing of a liquor, / Down his funnel like the flicker of a candle coursed the beer, / And he thirsted like a fiend, and spread a superstitious fear / Round the draught-beleaguered shanty.

2. (orig. US black) a drunkard.

1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 1265: belong to the funnel gang, v. phr. To drink intoxicants to excess. ‘He belongs to the funnel gang’.
1927		W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 276: funnel—a drinking student.
1932		J.A. Shidler ‘More Stanford Expressions’ in AS VII:6 436: A drunkard is a ‘funnel,’ ‘tank,’ ‘blotter,’ or ‘sponge’.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 180: Don’t plan to end up in my diary, funnel-face.

3. (US black) in pl., tight trousers.

1942

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 21 Mar. 16: ‘[He] copped a glim of them hard funnels I was layin’ round my ankles’’.