off keel

From off + keel.

off keel

1. (of a watercraft, etc.) Out of balance, tilting to one side.
   • 1896, William Sharp, Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Col, Chapter 4, p. 78,

     The tide was full and the dingey was off keel. The punt nosed the pebbly slope like a terrier, but her stern swung clear.

   • 1906, Arthur Wesselhoeft Stevens, Practical Rowing with Scull and Sweep, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., Chapter 1, p. 10,

     […] at the finish the boat is moving faster, and the blade must be taken out more sharply if it is to avoid pulling the boat off keel.

   • 1946, Ross Rocklynne, “The Bottled Men” in Astounding Science-Fiction, Volume 37, Number 4, June 1946, p. 89,

     At any rate, Gull had done a hurried repair job on the ship, for it was traveling with the labored toil of an old man walking uphill. It was off-keel. The body of the ship leaned at an angle to the line of flight.

2. (figuratively) Out of control, not proceeding or running smoothly.
   • 1960, Brian Moore, The Luck of Ginger Coffey, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., Chapter One, p. 4,

     The lower half of a duplex apartment on a shabby Montreal street, dark as limbo, jerry-built fifty years ago and going off keel ever since.

   • 1998, Linda Greenhouse, “Horse Sense,” The New York Times Magazine, 8 November, 1998,

     I’ve learned the lesson that the worst thing that can happen to a gambler is to let his recent losses or wins knock him off keel emotionally.

   • 2002, Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, “At Camp David, Advise and Dissent,” The Washington Post, 31 January, 2002,

     Attorney General John D. Ashcroft provided an update to the group on his efforts to develop a legislative package to expand the powers of law enforcement to fight terrorism. He outlined a two-phase strategy, aimed first at “immediate disruption and prevention of terrorism” and followed by longer-term efforts to put terrorists “off keel.”

• on keel