MEANING
1. The central structural member running along a boat’s bottom, often projecting below it for stability.
2. A ridge or projecting structure shaped like a ship’s keel, including certain features of animals or flowers.
3. To lean dangerously to one side or turn over, especially of a boat or ship.
Use it for
naming the structural backbone of a boat; describing the part below a sailing hull; distinguishing the keel from the upper hull edgeSeparates a vessel’s structural backbone from similar ridges and from tipping or collapse. Writing functions: Ship structure / Leaning and collapse.
Words that belong together
- lay the keel
- a deep keel
- the ship’s keel
On the page
The keel scraped the sand before the bow reached shore.
The builders laid the keel while the rest of the vessel existed only on paper.
The bird’s breastbone had a pronounced keel for muscle attachment.
The flower’s lower petals formed a small keel beneath the wings.
The dinghy keeled sharply as the sail filled.
Word forms
- Base
- keel
- Past tense
- keeled
- Past participle
- keeled
- Present participle
- keeling
Usage notes
Countable noun: keel, keels. Verb: keel, keels, keeled, keeling; will keel. Keel over is the usual collapse construction. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common in nautical contexts (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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