Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Keel   /kil/   Listen
noun
Keel  n.  A brewer's cooling vat; a keelfat.


Keel  n.  
1.
(Shipbuilding) A longitudinal timber, or series of timbers scarfed together, extending from stem to stern along the bottom of a vessel. It is the principal timber of the vessel, and, by means of the ribs attached on each side, supports the vessel's frame. In an iron vessel, a combination of plates supplies the place of the keel of a wooden ship.
2.
Fig.: The whole ship.
3.
A barge or lighter, used on the Tyne for carrying coal from Newcastle; also, a barge load of coal, twenty-one tons, four cwt. (Eng.)
4.
(Bot.) The two lowest petals of the corolla of a papilionaceous flower, united and inclosing the stamens and pistil; a carina. See Carina.
5.
(Nat. Hist.) A projecting ridge along the middle of a flat or curved surface.
6.
(Aeronautics) 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.
Bilge keel (Naut.), a keel peculiar to ironclad vessels, extending only a portion of the length of the vessel under the bilges.
False keel. See under False.
Keel boat.
(a)
A covered freight boat, with a keel, but no sails, used on Western rivers. (U. S.)
(b)
A low, flat-bottomed freight boat. See Keel, n., 3.
Keel piece, one of the timbers or sections of which a keel is composed.
On even keel, in a level or horizontal position, so that the draught of water at the stern and the bow is the same.
On an even keel a. & adv., steady; balanced; steadily.


verb
Keel  v. t. & v. i.  To cool; to skim or stir. (Obs.) "While greasy Joan doth keel the pot."


Keel  v. i.  (past & past part. keeled; pres. part. keeling)  
1.
To traverse with a keel; to navigate.
2.
To turn up the keel; to show the bottom.
To keel over, to upset; to capsize. (Colloq.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Keel" Quotes from Famous Books



... o' Lochryan, he's gane, Wi' his merry men sae brave; Their hearts are o' the steel, an' a better keel Ne'er bowl'd owre the back o' a wave. Its no when the loch lies dead in his trough When naething disturbs it ava; But the rack and the ride o' the restless tide, Or the splash ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume V. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... as steel, For me let hap what may; I might make shift upon the keel Until the break ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner
... the upturned canoe and the almost exhausted boy clinging to it. He drove his own craft alongside and reaching quickly seized Enoch's shoulder, bearing him up as the youth's own hands slipped from their resting-place on the keel of the canoe. "Courage—courage!" cried the scout, heartily. "You are not goin' down yet, ...
— With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga • W. Bert Foster
... back of the canoe's center on the right side and the other was forward on the left. The weight of the three occupants was balanced so nicely that their delicate craft floated on a perfectly even keel. The lad near the prow was an Indian of a nobler type than is often seen in these later days, when he has been deprived of the native surroundings that fit him like the setting of ...
— The Hunters of the Hills • Joseph Altsheler
... fact were not established by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear to abuse the credulity of our readers, by the description of the vessels in which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large flat-bottomed boats were framed of light timber, but the sides and upper works consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides. [104] In the course of their slow and distant navigations, they must always have been exposed to the danger, ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com