Word.ws English Dictionary

keel

UK/kiːl/

keel noun: a large beam along the underside of a ship’s hull from bow to stern. Also the pronunciation spelling of kill.

keel: a large beam along the underside of a ship’s hull from bow to stern
Image: Heinrich Paasch, died March 25, 1904, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

keel (plural keels)

  1. A large beam along the underside of a ship’s hull from bow to stern.
    • I hear the noise about thy keel;
      ⁠I hear the bell struck in the night:
      ⁠I see the cabin-window bright;
      I see the sailor at the wheel.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto X”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
  2. A rigid, flat piece of material anchored to the lowest part of the hull of a ship to give it greater control and stability.
  3. In a dirigible, a construction similar in form and use to a ship's keel; in an aeroplane, a fin or fixed surface employed to increase stability and to hold the machine to its course.
  4. (broadly) The rigid bottom part of something else, especially an iceberg.
    • The most important ice features are the frequency and extent of downward projections (bummocks and ice keels) from the underside of the ice canopy (pack ice and enclosed water areas from the point of view of the submariner)[…]1975, Nathaniel Bowditch, American Practical Navigator: An Epitome of Navigation, page 834
    • Bill Roggensack, EBA Engineering Ltd.: So at the end of this particular simulation, presumably the keel of the iceberg is in contact with the seabed? / Chris Woodworth-Lynas: It is just in contact with the seabed.1986, Environmental Studies Revolving Funds (Canada); C. F. M. Lewis; Federal Panel on Energy Research and Development (Canada); Gulf Canada Resources Inc; Ice Scour Workshop (1985 : Calgary, Alta.)...
  5. A type of flat-bottomed boat.
    • The ladies remained at the house, while the men walked to the staith on the [River] Wear, and were shown the process of unloading the wagons into the keels by means of the coal-drop.1948 January and February, “Notes and News: Duke of Wellington's Early Railway Journey”, in Railway Magazine, page 56
  6. The periphery of a whorl extended to form a more or less flattened plate; a prominent spiral ridge.
    • Metanotum shining, indistinctly punctured at the base in the centre, the sides closely punctured; the areola large, obliquely narrowed at the base, its apex open, there are 2 lateral areas, both widely open at the base on the outerside; the posterior median area bears about 10 stout, transverse...1906, Records of the Albany Museum - Volume 1, page 314
  7. The two lowest petals of the corolla of a papilionaceous flower, united and enclosing the stamens and pistil; a carina.
    • Vegetatively it is the nearest to H. translucens with its oblong-lanceolate leaves, with the margins and keel beset with pellucid teeth, but it differs and is characterised by the greyish-black quadrantly positioned globose flowers; […]1985, Charles L. Scott, The Genus Haworthia (Liliaceae): A Taxonomic Revision, page 80
  8. The extension of a bird's sternum to which pectoral muscles attach.
    Synonyms:
    carina

Verb (1)

keel (third-person singular simple present keels, present participle keeling, simple past and past participle keeled)

  1. (intransitive) To collapse, to fall.
    • He keeled over after having a stroke.
  2. To traverse with a keel; to navigate.
  3. To turn up the keel; to show the bottom.

Verb (2)

keel (third-person singular simple present keels, present participle keeling, simple past and past participle keeled)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To cool; make cool; to cool by stirring or skimming in order to keep from boiling over.
    • A merrie note, / While greaſie Ione doth keele the pot.c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby...
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To moderate the ardour or intensity of; assuage; to appease, pacify, or lessen.
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To become cool; cool down.

Noun (2)

keel (plural keels)

  1. A broad, flat vessel used for cooling liquids; a brewer's cooling vat; a keelfat.

Noun (3)

keel

  1. (Scotland) Red chalk; ruddle.

Verb (3)

keel (third-person singular simple present keels, present participle keeling, simple past and past participle keeled)

  1. (Scotland, transitive) To mark with ruddle.

Also used as

keel is also the pronunciation spelling of kill.

keel meaning in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tagalog

keel in Telugu

కీల్

keel in Malayalam

കീൽ

keel in Kannada

ಕೀಲ್

keel in Tagalog

beam along the underside of a ship’s hull
lunas, kilya
More languagesFewer languages
keel in Arabic
صَالِب ṣālib
keel in Malay
lunas
keel in Persian
شاهتیر šāhtir
keel in Thai
กระดูกงู grà-dùuk-nguu

Examples of keel in a sentence

  • We should all go inside before somebody keels over from the heat.
  • They took it for granted that the rigid soleplate was as true as the keel beneath it.
  • But the soleplate was not rigid and the keel was not true.

All 38 example sentences with keel

Synonyms of keel

Forms of keel

Noun
pluralkeels
Verb
third-person singular presentkeels
present participlekeeling
past participlekeeled
pastkeeled

Past tense of keel: keeled

Plural of keel: keels

Origin of keel

From Middle English kele, from Old Norse kjǫlr, itself from Proto-Germanic *keluz, of uncertain origin. Displaced Old English ċēol from a related root. Distantly related to kile.

From Middle English kelen, from Old English cēlan (“to cool, to make or become cool”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōlijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōlijaną (“to cool”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian käile, köile (“to cool”), Dutch koelen (“to cool”), German Low German köhlen (“to cool”), German kühlen (“to cool”), Danish køle (“to cool”), Icelandic kæla (“to cool”).

Probably from Scottish Gaelic cìl (“ruddle”).

Words formed from keel

Phrases with keel

Words that rhyme with keel

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about keel

What does keel mean?
Keel means a large beam along the underside of a ship’s hull from bow to stern.
What is keel in Telugu?
Keel in Telugu is కీల్. See Keel meaning in Telugu.
What part of speech is keel?
Keel can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce keel?
Keel is pronounced /kiːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of keel?
The plural of keel is keels.

Words near keel in the dictionary

  1. keeks
  2. keekwilee-house
  3. keekwilee-houses
  4. Keekwulee
  5. Keekwulees
  6. keel
  7. keel arch
  8. keel arches
  9. keel haul
  10. keel hauled
  11. keel hauling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keel (page history and authors); keel (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keel (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); keel (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-keel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “keel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.