Forms: 4–6 kele, (4 kelle, 5 keole, 6 kyele, kile), 6–7 keele, Sc. keill, 7– keel. [prob. a. ON. kjǫl-r (Da. kjøl, Sw. köl):—*kelu-z; not connected with Du. and G. kiel (KEEL sb.2). F. quille, in a Rouen document of 1382 (Hatz.-Darm.), was prob. also from ON.; Sp. quilla, It. chiglia may be from French. The sense-development of the English word has been influenced by its use to translate L. carīna keel, hull, ship.
ON. kjǫlr is not parallel, either in sense or form, with the OE. (scipes) celae, which in the earliest glossaries renders L. rostrum beak.]
1. The lowest longitudinal timber of a ship or boat, on which the framework of the whole is built up; in boats and small vessels forming a prominent central ridge on the under surface; in iron vessels, a combination of iron plates taking the place and serving the purpose of the keel of a wooden vessel.
1352. [see keel-rope in 7 b].
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 233. Þe schippe was … þritty cubite high from þe cule [v.r. kele] to þe hacches. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., V. xxxii. (MS. Bodl.), lf. 17 b/1. Alle þe bones in þe body beþ ifounded in þe rigge, as a schippe of þe keole.
1496. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 181. For Reparacion … of the Soueraignes grete Bote & Jolywat … for the Kele & Belge of the same.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (1895), 31. Afterwarde thei founde shyppes wyth rydged kyeles.
1555. Eden, Decades, 2. The keele or bottome of the biggeste vessell ranne vpon a blynde rocke.
1611. Florio, Dare carena, to giue the keele, to carene as Mariners say.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 152. Then shall he [unfit pilot] … lose his hire,… or else (by the Law of Denmarke) passe thrice vnder the Ships Keele.
1665. Lond. Gaz., No. 5/1. A Vessel you have heard so much of with a double Keel.
1725. Pope, Odyss., II. 468. The crooked keel the parting surge divides.
1804. Naval Chron., XI. 212. A boat oversets and lies keel up.
1849. Longf., Build. Ship, 136. The keel of oak for a noble ship, Scarfed and bolted, straight and strong.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., ii. 18. The keels of iron ships were originally external, and not unfrequently of wood.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiv. 10. Texture of upright pine with a keel’s curved rondure uniting.
fig. 1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., I. i. 2. Our good wife sets up a sail according to the keel of her husbands estate.
1898. Lit. World, 20 May, 453. The keel of his education was laid at Dummer House, near Basingstoke.
b. With qualifying terms: bar-keel, a projecting keel formed by a bar or plate; box-keel, a composite iron keel whose section is that of a box; dish-keel, a keel formed of iron-plates with dish-shaped section; drop-keel, (a) a centre-board; (b) a projecting keel, as distinguished from a flat plate-keel; false keel, (a) an additional keel attached to the bottom of the true keel to protect it and increase the stability of the vessel; (b) an external keel subsequently added to a vessel; inner keel, the kelson of an iron vessel; outer keel, the plate-keel in the hull of an iron vessel; plate-keel, a keel formed by a line of iron plates, which do not project below the hull; rank-keel, a very deep keel; sliding keel, a centre-board; vertical keel (see quots. 1883 and 1890); etc. See also BILGE-KEEL, fin-keel (FIN sb. 6).
1627. False keel [see FALSE a. 17 b].
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 49. New Stirrups put to secure the false Keel.
1706. Phillips, Rank-keel is a deep Keel, which keeps a Ship well from rolling.
1792. Ld. Chatham, in Naval Chron., XIII. 203. His Majesty’s armed Vessel built with sliding Keels. Ibid. (1805), 201. In the year 1774, that gentleman [Capt. J. Schank, R.N.] first constructed a Boat with sliding keels.
1825. Clark, etc. Shipwrights Scale Prices, 4. To chisel up the under side of the main or false keel.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 268. There are three principal forms of keel in vogue, viz:—bar, flat plate, and centre plate or side bar keels. Of these the former is the commonest.
1883. Nares, Constr. Ironclad, 4. The vertical keel … is placed upright on its edge on the outer keel…. It is about 31/2 feet high, and on it, parallel to the outer keel, is fastened the inner keel.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 65. On the blocks is laid the flat keel, which is practically the centre-line of plating; on this is placed the vertical keel, and on this come the keelsons.
c. Phr. † In keel, in the hull. On (or with) even keel, with the keel level: see EVEN a. 1 c.
1568. Sempill, Marg. Fleming, 9, in Satir. Poems Reform., xlvi. With evin keill befoir the wind Scho is richt fairdy with a saill.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xi. 54. Trying her sailing … upon an euen Keele.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., App. 209. Those who are in keel [are] as safe as those in the shrouds, if the storme rage.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, ix. A steady draw and an even keel.
2. A ship, vessel. (poetic, after L. carīna.)
a. 1547. Earl Surrey, Æneid, II. 229. The God that they by sea had brought In warped keeles.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., IV. 47. No Keel shall cut the Waves for foreign Ware.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 16. To buy a new keel with my gold, And fill her with such things as she may hold.
b. A yacht built with a permanent keel instead of a centre-board.
1883. J. D. Jerrold Kelly, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 453/1. Many keels are afloat.
3. That part of anything which corresponds in position, form, or otherwise to a ship’s keel; the bottom or under surface; a keel-like lower part.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., II. 10/1. The keel or bottom of any weight, that is to be drawn along, shou’d be even and solid.
1815. Sporting Mag., XLVI. 131. Tom knock’d his friend keel upwards on the floor.
1826. J. Adamson, Sk. Inform. Rail-roads, 6. To the part projecting downwards … we may apply the … designation of the keel of the rail.
4. A central ridge along the back or convex surface of any organ or structure, as a leaf, a petal, a glume of grass, the lower mandible of a bird, etc.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. lxxxvi. 138. The blades of the Leeke be long … hauing a keele or crest in the backside.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 327. The full-sized North Devon cow,… open bosom, with a deep chest or keel preceding and between its legs.
1851–6. Woodward, Mollusca, 45. The discoidal ammonites sometimes … have the keel on one side, instead of in the middle.
1852. Dana, Crust., I. 595. The beak is rather short … with a keel above.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 214. Leaves with the keel usually setose.
5. spec. in Bot. and Zool.
a. The two lowest petals of a papilionaceous corolla, more or less united and shaped like the prow of a boat; the carina; also any analogous structure in other orders, as the lower petal in Polygala, etc. b. A prominent ridge along the breastbone of birds of the class Carinatæ, at first cartilaginous but afterwards becoming ossified. † c. A name for the notochord which appears in an egg during incubation (obs.).
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 35. The shaplings or tiny keeles of the great Malpighiuses eggs.
1766. Parsons, in Phil. Trans., LVI. 208. The crane is the next…, which has such a turning of the aspera arteria in the keel of the sternum.
1770–4. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1803), III. 116. The medullary substance, with what Malpighi calls the keel (carina) and the nervous system, are latent in the egg.
1776. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., Explan. Terms 396. Carina, the Keel, the lower Petal often in Form of a Boat.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., iv. (1858), 39. (Polygala) Petals hypogynous, 3; of which one is anterior and larger than the rest (the keel).
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. 55. Birds are divided into two orders, the Ratitæ, in which the sternum has no crest … and the Carinatæ, in which the sternum has a crest or keel.
6. Arch. A ridge or edge on a rounded molding.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 248. The heaviness of large roll mouldings was often relieved by … raised edges or ‘keels.’
1886. Willis & Clark, Cambridge, II. 133. The large rounds have both narrow fillets or wings, and sharp edges or keels, worked on them.
7. Comb. a. General, as keel-rib, -timber; keel-billed, -compelling, -shaped, -spanning adjs.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. 43. Having the Proportion of any one Ship … with the length of her Keel-Timbers.
1787. Fam. Plants, I. 33. Per[ianth] the valvelets keel-compressed.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. xx. Blow, swiftly blow, thou keel-compelling gale.
1851–6. Woodward, Mollusca, 241. Their keel-shaped foot is adapted for ploughing through sand or mud.
1854. Gould, Toucans, 2. Ramphastos carinatus, Keel-billed Toucan.
1871. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), I. 245. The boats are built high stem and stern, with the keel-rib running up into an ornament at each end.
b. Special combs.: keel-band, a strip of iron fastened along the keel of a boat; keel-bill, keel-bird, a West Indian bird, Crotophaga minor, of the cuckoo family; keel-block, one of the short pieces of timber on which the keel of a vessel rests in building or in a dry dock (Hamersly, Naval Encycl., 1881); † keel-drawing = KEELHAULING; keel-line, (a) the line of timber forming the keel; (b) a small rope used in lacing a bonnet or additional sail to the foot of another sail; keel-mo(u)lding, a roll-molding having a keel (sense 6) worked on it, frequent in mediæval architecture; keel-petal: see 5 a; keel-piece, one of the timbers or sections composing the keel (Hamersly, Nav. Encycl.); keel-plate, one of the iron plates forming the keel in iron vessels; keel-raking = KEELHAULING; keel-riveter, a machine for riveting the keels of iron vessels on the stock; † keel-rope, ‘a coarse rope formerly used for clearing the limber holes’ by drawing it backwards and forwards (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.); keel-staple, a staple used in fastening the false keel to the main keel (ibid.). Also KEEL-BOAT, KEELHAUL v.
1857. P. Colquhoun, Comp. Oarsman’s Guide, 28. The *keel-band, a thin strong piece of iron coming up over the nose, and up to the transom.
1811. G. Shaw, Gen. Zool., VIII. 382. The *Keel-Bill is a bird of a tame and gentle nature.
1700. S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind. 10. This Punishment is call’d Keel-halen, which may be call’d in English *Keel-drawing.
1829. Sporting Mag., XXIV. 125. Prior to the *keel-line being placed on the stocks.
1851. Kipping, Sailmaking (ed. 2), 37. Bonnets have a head tabling, 21/2 inches broad, on which a line of 12-thread, named Keel-line, for forming the latchings, is sewed in bights.
1876. Darwin, Cross-Fertil., 155. They did not depress the *keel-petals so as to expose the anthers and stigma.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 75. A vertical *keel plate, extending from the inner surface of the flat keel plates to the inner bottom plates.
1706. Phillips, s.v. Ducking, If the Offence be great, he is also drawn under the Ships-Keel; which is termed *Keel-raking.
1352. Exch. Acc. Q. R. Bundle 20 No. 27 (P. R. O.). Et de iis. solutis pro quadam corda de crine, vocata *Kellerope posit um (sic) in fundo navis ad faciendum per navem bonum exitum aque.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 14. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., vi. 28. The Keele rope … is of haire in the Keele to scower the Limber holes.
