keels

Noun

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
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

See all 17 meanings of keel

Noun

kayles (uncountable)

1. (dialectal, obsolete) The game of skittles or ninepins.
   • Playing kayles, i.e. throwing a stick at ninepins, at Smithfield, 13th century.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 239
2. A simple impartial game in combinatorial game theory, in which players take turns to knock out one pin or two adjacent pins from a line of imagined bowling pins.