Keel

1. (v. t. & i.) To cool; to skim or stir.
2. (n.) A brewer's cooling vat; a keelfat.
3. (n.) A longitudinal timber, or series of timbers scarfed together, extending from stem to stern along the bottom of a vessel. It is the principal timber of the vessel, and, by means of the ribs attached on each side, supports the vessel's frame. In an iron vessel, a combination of plates supplies the place of the keel of a wooden ship. See Illust. of Keelson.
4. (n.) Fig.: The whole ship.
5. (n.) A barge or lighter, used on the Type for carrying coal from Newcastle; also, a barge load of coal, twenty-one tons, four cwt.
6. (n.) The two lowest petals of the corolla of a papilionaceous flower, united and inclosing the stamens and pistil; a carina. See Carina.
7. (n.) A projecting ridge along the middle of a flat or curved surface.
8. (v. i.) To traverse with a keel; to navigate.
9. (v. i.) To turn up the keel; to show the bottom.
10. (n.) 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.