verb (used with object)
- Nautical. to haul (an offender) under the bottom of a ship and up on the other side as a punishment.
- to rebuke severely.
verb (tr)
- to drag (a person) by a rope from one side of a vessel to the other through the water under the keel
- to rebuke harshly
1660s (the experience itself is described from 1620s), from Dutch kielhalen, literally “to haul under the keel,” an old punishment. See keel (n.) + haul (v.). Related: Keelhauled. German kielholen, Danish kjølhale, Swedish kölhala also are from Dutch.