keel

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“
_Vandalia_, and skirted south-eastward along the front of the shore reef, which her keel was at times almost touching.

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Definitions (48)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. noun Nautical The principal structural member of a ship, running lengthwise along the center line from bow to stern, to which the frames are attached.
  2. noun Nautical A ship.
  3. noun A structure, such as the breastbone of a bird, that resembles a ship's keel in function or shape.
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Examples (50)

  • The first glume is lanceolate, acute, shorter than the second, with a keel which is scabrid. —  A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses
  • His philosophy had always contemplated it at a distance, toward which easy and gradual approaches might be made: but here it was, now, at a cable's length And yet it was very strange; the sea was not high; no gale as yet; only an occasional grating thump of the keel was a reminder that the good Meteor was not still afloat. —  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866
  • We sank almost immediately, but as our keel was near the river bed we had not far to go. —  A Fantasy of Mediterranean Travel
  • I tell you the keel is not laid, and the mast is not out of the acorn that will carry away Stair Garland. —  Patsy
  • On the spit of jutting sand which had formed at the junction of the creek and the brook was the deep imprint of a boat's keel, and close by were half a dozen large footsteps They looked quite fresh, and had evidently been made by two persons. —  Canoe Boys and Campfires Adventures on Winding Waters
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Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English kele, from Old Norse kjölr.
  2. Middle English kele, from Middle Dutch kiel.
  3. Middle English kelen, from Old English cēlan, to cool; see gel- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. Early modern English also kyel (*kiel); from Middle English *kele, not found; the reg. form from the Anglo-Saxon, also not found, would be *cheol, *chele, English as if *cheel, as shortened in Chelsea and Cholsey, Anglo-Saxon ceólesīg, (a) partly (in def. 1) from Anglo-Saxon ceól, ciól, a ship (chiefly poetical), = Dutch kiel = Middle Low German kel, kil, Low German kiel = Old High German kiol, keol, chiol, cheol, Middle High German kiel = Icelandic kjōll (chiefly poetical; plural kjōlar), a ship (perhaps = Greek γαῦλος, a round-built Phenician merchant vessel); and (b) partly (in def. 2) from an orig. different word, namely Icelandic kjölr (plural kilir) = Danish kjöl = Swedish köl, the keel of a vessel, whence also apparently D. and G. kiel, in this sense. The F. quille = Spanish quilla = Portuguese quilha = Italian chiglia, chiela, the keel of a vessel, is prob. from the English (the Spanish Portuguese Italian through the F.). In def. 5 (and 6) the word is prob. a fig. use of def. 2. Cf. bottom, in the sense of ‘ship.’ The Anglo-Saxon term for ‘keel’ in def. 2 was scipes botm, ‘ship's bottom,’ or bytme, ‘bottom.’
  2. from keel, n.
  3. from Middle English kelen (also assibilated chelen), from Anglo-Saxon cēlan (OFries. kēla = Old High German chuolan, kualen, Middle High German küelen, German kühlen = Icelandic kæla), make cool, from cōl, cool: see cool. Cf. cool, v.
  4. from keel, v.
  5. from Irish Gaelic cīl, ruddle.
 

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/kil/
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