Capsize

//ˈkæpsaɪz// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of, or occurrence of capsizing or overturning.
Verb
  1. 1
    To overturn. intransitive

    "Baby, I think I'm capsizing / The waves are rising and rising"

  2. 2
    overturn accidentally wordnet
  3. 3
    To cause (a ship) to overturn. transitive

    "But what if carrying sail capsize the boat?"

  4. 4
    To deform under stress. intransitive

    "There are even cases where a totally different knot may result when carelessly pulled. Tie the Granny Knot around any object and pull one end, and it will capsize into Two Half Hitches."

Synonyms

All synonyms
keel overturn turtleturn turtlebe lostcareencome a cropper

Example

More examples

"In a statement on its website, the Norwegian Coastal Administration said it feared the ship could capsize because the vessel was listing at a 40- to 50-degree angle."

Etymology

Attested since 1788. Origin unknown. Possibly related to Spanish chapuzar (“to sink by the head”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.