keel over

phrasal verb

keeled over; keeling over; keels over

informal

: to fall down suddenly

He just keeled over and died from a heart attack.

I almost keeled over with/in laughter.

Examples of keel over in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Otherwise healthy workers keel over at their desks after long stretches of overtime or after consummating a high-pressure deal, usually from a stroke or heart attack. —

Bryan Robinson, Forbes, 22 Sep. 2024 The worst of them came on Sept. 3, 2017, when Scott was discovered by park security keeled over a bench in California Adventure near the 1901 Lounge. —

Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Sep. 2024 In these dire straits, rather than keel over and die, many organisms have mastered the art of dormancy. —

Dan Samorodnitsky, Quanta Magazine, 5 June 2024 And then Alexandra coughs up blood and keels over, dead within seconds. —

Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 13 Feb. 2024 After Draymond Green got assessed two technical fouls in rapid succession to get ejected Wednesday night, Curry keeled over. —

Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2024 Up to this point, Robbie had been playing a silly fantasy on the fritz, contemplating death, keeling over on fake lawns in real defeat. —

Wesley Morris, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2024 Despite the jaunty pop song playing, an older man going for a morning jog in a scrubby Buenos Aires park, suddenly keels over dead of a heart attack. —

Jessica Kiang, Variety, 29 Sep. 2023 Abdul Hamid, a day laborer who lives next to the crash site, recalled seeing Waris keeled over vomiting and hearing vigilantes say that Waris was pleading for water. —

Pranshu Verma, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'keel over.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.