off keel
English
Etymology
From off + keel.
Prepositional phrase
off keel
- (of a watercraft, etc.) Out of balance, tilting to one side.
- 1896, William Sharp, Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Col, Chapter 4, p. 78,
- The tide was full and the dingey was off keel. The punt nosed the pebbly slope like a terrier, but her stern swung clear.
- 1906, Arthur Wesselhoeft Stevens, Practical Rowing with Scull and Sweep, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., Chapter 1, p. 10,
- […] at the finish the boat is moving faster, and the blade must be taken out more sharply if it is to avoid pulling the boat off keel.
- 1946, Ross Rocklynne, “The Bottled Men” in Astounding Science-Fiction, Volume 37, Number 4, June 1946, p. 89,
- At any rate, Gull had done a hurried repair job on the ship, for it was traveling with the labored toil of an old man walking uphill. It was off-keel. The body of the ship leaned at an angle to the line of flight.
- 1896, William Sharp, Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Col, Chapter 4, p. 78,
- (figuratively) Out of control, not proceeding or running smoothly.
- 1960, Brian Moore, The Luck of Ginger Coffey, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., Chapter One, p. 4,
- The lower half of a duplex apartment on a shabby Montreal street, dark as limbo, jerry-built fifty years ago and going off keel ever since.
- 1998, Linda Greenhouse, “Horse Sense,” The New York Times Magazine, 8 November, 1998,
- I’ve learned the lesson that the worst thing that can happen to a gambler is to let his recent losses or wins knock him off keel emotionally.
- 2002, Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, “At Camp David, Advise and Dissent,” The Washington Post, 31 January, 2002,
- Attorney General John D. Ashcroft provided an update to the group on his efforts to develop a legislative package to expand the powers of law enforcement to fight terrorism. He outlined a two-phase strategy, aimed first at “immediate disruption and prevention of terrorism” and followed by longer-term efforts to put terrorists “off keel.”
- 1960, Brian Moore, The Luck of Ginger Coffey, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., Chapter One, p. 4,
Antonyms
- on keel