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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

careen.

To heave a ship down on one side so as to expose the other, in order to clean it of barnacles and weed, or to repair it below the water line.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kəˈɹiːn/
  1. To heave a ship down on one side so as to expose the other, in order to clean it of barnacles and weed, or to repair it below the water line.

    transitive
  2. To tilt on one side.

    intransitive
  3. To lurch or sway violently from side to side.

    intransitive
  4. To tilt or lean while in motion.

    intransitive
  5. To career, to move rapidly straight ahead, to rush carelessly.

    US · intransitive
  6. To move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way.

    US · intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin carīna Italian carenabor. French carènebor. English careen First attested in the late 16th century, from French carène (“keel”), from Italian carena, from Latin carīna (“keel of a ship”). Doublet of carene and carina.

noun/kəˈɹiːn/
  1. The position of a ship laid on one side.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin carīna Italian carenabor. French carènebor. English careen First attested in the late 16th century, from French carène (“keel”), from Italian carena, from Latin carīna (“keel of a ship”). Doublet of carene and carina.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.