keel
/kiːl/ noun C2- A large beam along the underside of a ship’s hull from bow to stern.
- A rigid, flat piece of material anchored to the lowest part of the hull of a ship to give it greater control and stability.
- 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.
- The rigid bottom part of something else, especially an iceberg.
- A type of flat-bottomed boat.
- The periphery of a whorl extended to form a more or less flattened plate; a prominent spiral ridge.
- The two lowest petals of the corolla of a papilionaceous flower, united and enclosing the stamens and pistil; a carina.
- The extension of a bird's sternum to which pectoral muscles attach.
Plural keels
From the library
The red cap of one of the sailors hung to a point of the rock and some timbers that had formed part of the vessel’s keel, floated at the foot of the crag.
In a creek lay a little sloop, with a narrow keel and high masts, bearing on its flag the Monte Cristo arms which were a mountain or, on a sea azure, with a cross gules in chief which might be an allusion to his name that recalled Calvary, the mount rendered by our Lord’s passion more precious than gold, and to the degrading cross which his blood had rendered holy; or it might be some personal remembrance of suffering and regeneration buried in the night of this mysterious personage’s past life.
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