Library / English Dictionary

KEEL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

One of the main longitudinal beams (or plates) of the hull of a vessel; can extend vertically into the water to provide lateral stability

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("keel" is a kind of...):

beam (long thick piece of wood or metal or concrete, etc., used in construction)

Meronyms (parts of "keel"):

fin keel (a metal plate projecting from the keel of a shallow vessel to give it greater lateral stability)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "keel"):

bilge keel (either of two lengthwise fins attached along the outside of a ship's bilge; reduces rolling)

Holonyms ("keel" is a part of...):

hull (the frame or body of ship)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The median ridge on the breastbone of birds that fly

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("keel" is a kind of...):

carina (any of various keel-shaped structures or ridges such as that on the breastbone of a bird or that formed by the fused petals of a pea blossom)

Holonyms ("keel" is a part of...):

carinate; carinate bird; flying bird (birds having keeled breastbones for attachment of flight muscles)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A projection or ridge that suggests a keel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("keel" is a kind of...):

projection (any solid convex shape that juts out from something)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walk as if unable to control one's movements

Example:

The drunken man staggered into the room

Synonyms:

careen; keel; lurch; reel; stagger; swag

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "keel" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

A moment later he had dived under the boat, seized the keel in his mouth, and was shaking the boat violently.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The Hispaniola lay some way out, and we went under the figureheads and round the sterns of many other ships, and their cables sometimes grated underneath our keel, and sometimes swung above us.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Some dam day heem keel dat Buck.”

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

A lead keel of fabulous but unknown weight makes her very stable, while she carries an immense spread of canvas.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The ebb had already run some time, and I had to wade through a long belt of swampy sand, where I sank several times above the ankle, before I came to the edge of the retreating water, and wading a little way in, with some strength and dexterity, set my coracle, keel downwards, on the surface.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)