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(aeronautics) 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.
(by extension) The rigid bottom part of something else, especially an iceberg.
1975, Nathaniel Bowditch, American Practical Navigator: An Epitome of Navigation, page 834:
The most important ice features are the frequency and extent of downward projections (bummocks and ice keels) from the underside of the ice canopy (pack ice and enclosed water areas from the point of view of the submariner)[…]
1986, Environmental Studies Revolving Funds (Canada), C. F. M. Lewis, Federal Panel on Energy Research and Development (Canada), Gulf Canada Resources Inc, Ice Scour Workshop (1985 : Calgary, Alta.), Ice Scour and Seabed Engineering: Proceedings of a Workshop on Ice Scour Research:
Bill Roggensack, EBA Engineering Ltd.: So at the end of this particular simulation, presumably the keel of the iceberg is in contact with the seabed? / Chris Woodworth-Lynas: It is just in contact with the seabed.
2021 September 30, Kenneth Andrus, Arctic Menace, Babylon Books, →ISBN:
Would he be able to break through the surface ice or would they ram into an ice keel extending down from the bottom of the ice pack that would rip their craft open like a mere sardine can?
1948 January and February, “Notes and News: Duke of Wellington's Early Railway Journey”, in Railway Magazine, page 56:
The ladies remained at the house, while the men walked to the staith on the Wear, and were shown the process of unloading the wagons into the keels by means of the coal-drop.
(zoology) The periphery of a whorl extended to form a more or less flattened plate; a prominent spiral ridge.
1906, Records of the Albany Museum - Volume 1, page 314:
Metanotum shining, indistinctly punctured at the base in the centre, the sides closely punctured; the areola large, obliquely narrowed at the base, its apex open, there are 2 lateral areas, both widely open at the base on the outerside; the posterior median area bears about 10 stout, transverse keels; on its apical outerside is a triangular area; the spiracular is bounded on the outerside by a distinct keel.
1985, Charles L. Scott, The Genus Haworthia (Liliaceae): A Taxonomic Revision, page 80:
Vegetatively it is the nearest to H. translucens with its oblong-lanceolate leaves, with the margins and keel beset with pellucid teeth, but it differs and is characterised by the greyish-black quadrantly positioned globose flowers; […]
“keel”, in Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
“keel”, in Eesti keele põhisõnavara sõnastik [Dictionary of Estonian Basic Vocabulary] (in Estonian) (online version, not updated), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2014
1) obsolete *) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka? or -kä? to the genitive.