Meanings
nounkeelboat (plural keelboats)
plural keelboats
- nauticalAny sailboat having a keel (as opposed to a centerboard or daggerboard).
By and by the steamboat intruded. Then for fifteen or twenty years, these men continued to run their keelboats down-stream, and the steamers did all of the upstream business, the keelboatmen selling their boats in New Orleans, and returning home as deck passengers in the steamers.
1870, Mark Twain, chapter 3, in Life on the Mississippi
Origin
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 龍骨帆船 /龙骨帆船
- 龍骨帆船 /龙骨帆船sailboat having a keel
Finnish kölivene
- kölivenesailboat having a keel
French quillard
- quillardsailboat having a keel
German Kielboot
- Kielbootsailboat having a keel
Russian килево́е су́дно
- килево́е су́дно (kilevóje súdno)sailboat having a keel
Cite this entry
APA
keelboat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keelboat
MLA
“keelboat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keelboat. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “keelboat,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/keelboat.
Source: keelboat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.