/ˈkiːl ˈəʊvə(ɹ)/
English idiom, informal. To faint or pass out.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Keel over
?
Informal, for someone suddenly collapsing, from a faint, the heat or exhaustion. It’s often hypothetical or jokey: “I nearly keeled over”, “he’ll keel over if he sees the bill”. Be careful, because it can also mean to drop dead, and only the context tells you which.
Keel over
in real sentences
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I’m afraid she’ll keel over before she succeeds.
Tatoeba, sentence by dresisto, CC BY 2.0 FR
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And blocking the exit was a very old goat that looked like she was about to keel over any second.
Where does Keel over
come from?
The picture comes from sailing. English Wiktionary explains that a ship “keels over” when it rolls so far on its side that its keel, the long beam along the bottom of the hull, shows. By the 1870s people did it too: in Tom Sawyer (1876), Mark Twain has a boy brag that another kid would “keel over just with two draws” on a pipe.
Mistakes learners make with Keel over
Learners use it for objects falling over in general (“the vase keeled over”). For people it means collapsing, and for anything else it really only works for boats tipping over.
Other English idioms like Keel over
Spot a mistake in Keel over
?
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