[f. KEEL sb.1]
1. trans. To plow (the sea) with a keel. (nonce-use.)
1808. J. Barlow, Columb., IX. 534. The Lombards keel their Adriatic main.
2. intr. Of a ship: To roll on her keel.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. Keeling.
3. trans. To turn up the keel of, show the bottom of. Keel over, to turn over, ‘turn wrong side uppermost,’ turn (a man or beast) upon his back; to upset, capsize. (lit. and fig.) Orig. U.S.
1828. Webster, Keel, to turn up the keel; to show the bottom.
1856. Mrs. Stowe, Dred, I. 116 (Bartlett). When we get keeled up, that will be the last of us.
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly (1877), 148. He was keeled back … on a strong chair, with his feet on the front of the table.
1894. Stockton, in Mrs. Clifford, Grey Romance, etc. 175. We now all set to work to keel over the yacht.
1897. R. Kipling, Captains Courageous, i. 6. It would take more than this to keel me over.
b. intr. To turn or be turned over; to be upset; to fall over or be felled as if by a shock. Orig. U.S.
a. 1860. N. Y. Despatch (Bartlett). Keel over they must, and a gradual careen would be much better than a sudden capsize.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xli. 296. They keeled ower on their backs.
1897. Olive Schreiner, Trooper Pet. Halkett, II. 209. The third man keeled round on to his stomach again.
