What does "keelhaul" mean?

To punish by dragging under the keel of a ship with the intent of causing painful injuries.

What is a synonym for "keelhaul"?

Common synonyms include: admonish, badmouth, blame, blast, castigate, censure.

//ˈkiːlhɔːl// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Verb

1
To punish by dragging under the keel of a ship with the intent of causing painful injuries. transitive
"March 11 [1667].—Hermans Jans, boatswain; disobedience of orders and stabbing his captain; sentenced to be degraded to common seaman, to be thrice keelhauled, to be well flogged, to have the knife stuck through his hand, and to forfeit, pro fisco, 6 months' wages."
2
To rebuke harshly. transitive
"I've done these inquiries myself, Col. The top people can always put up such a bloody fine brick wall for themselves that no outsider has a chance of getting over or seeing through. But the same wall may stop some nonentity making his getaway, and he's the one the inquiry keelhauls."

"None of your sass, Jasper, or I'll keelhaul you!"

From Dutch kielhalen (“keelhaul”), from kiel (“keel”) + halen (“fetch; catch”).

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