careen
/kəˈɹiːn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.91 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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 verb
verb
To career, to move rapidly straight ahead, to rush carelessly.
American usage; Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "However, to avoid ſome inconveniencies relating to port duties, which would have been demanded in the port of Canton, and could not, in honour to the British flag, be complied with by us, he adviſed Mr Anſon to put into the harbour of Typa, about ſix miles from Macao, where he might careen his ſhip without diſturbance ; and actually ſent us a pilot to conduct us ſafe to the intended birth."
- "They were not motionless, but swayed to and fro above her head, thronging out of one sky-light into another, as if the universe and not the air-ship was careening."
- "The car in which I had taken Olivia to dinner and then out to the cemetery — a historic vehicle, even a monument of sorts, in the history of fellatio's advent onto the Winesburg campus in the second half of the twentieth century — went careening off to the side and turned end-over-end down Lower Main until it exploded in flames..."
- "He tries for a lot of things, careening wildly from earnest romance to feel-good comedy to hackneyed suspense, all the while leaving it up to the audience to suss out the moral complexity and existential terror underneath the glossy surface."
- "The tragedy is immediate, real, epic and unfolding before our eyes. But it isn’t new. It is the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years."
- "Argentina may be an unlikely place for a billionaire looking for stability. The country has careened through nearly a century of instability, marred by military coups and spectacular financial collapses epitomized by triple-digit inflation."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- American usage