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keel over

Pronunciation: /ˈkiːl ˈəʊvə(ɹ)/

The English word “keel over” has 3 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. Of a vessel: to roll so far on its side that it cannot recover; to capsize or turn turtle.
  2. To collapse in a faint; to black out, to swoon.
  3. To die.

Etymology

The original nautical meaning (sense 1) refers to a vessel rolling to the extent that its keel (“a large beam along the underside of the vessel’s hull from bow to stern”) is visible.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.