careen
Americanverb (used without object)
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careens,
present (3rd person singular)
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careened,
past participle, past
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careening
present participle
-
(of a vehicle) to lean, sway, or tip to one side while in motion.
The car careened around the corner.
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(of a ship) to heel over or list.
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South Midland U.S. to lean or bend away from the vertical position.
The barn was careening a little.
verb (used with object)
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careens,
present (3rd person singular)
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careened,
past participle, past
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careening
present participle
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to cause (a ship) to lie over on a side, as for repairs or cleaning; heave down.
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to clean or repair (a ship lying on its side for the purpose).
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to cause (a ship) to heel over or list, as by the force of a beam wind.
noun
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a careening.
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Nautical. the position of a careened ship.
verb
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to sway or cause to sway dangerously over to one side
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(tr) nautical to cause (a vessel) to keel over to one side, esp in order to clean or repair its bottom
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(intr) nautical (of a vessel) to keel over to one side
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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careensimple
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careenssimple
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have careenedperfect
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has careenedperfect
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am careeningprogressive
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are careeningprogressive
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is careeningprogressive
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have been careeningperfect progressive
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has been careeningperfect progressive
Past
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careenedsimple
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had careenedperfect
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was careeningprogressive
-
were careeningprogressive
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had been careeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of careen
1585–95 careen for def. 9; < Middle French carine < Latin carīna keel, nutshell; akin to Greek káryon nut
Explanation
Whether it’s an unsteady ship, a speeding bus, or a person who is woozy, use the verb careen to describe something that’s teetering from side to side. When the word careen first entered the English language in the sixteenth century, it was used to describe a beached ship that was turned on its side for repair. The word can still refer to making those kinds of nautical repairs, but now you’re more likely to hear the word used to describe something that is swaying from side to side. You may feel like a ship out of control if you careen madly through a crowd or if you careen down a steep hill on skis.
Vocabulary lists containing careen
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
While recording in a park one evening, Jack picks up the sound of a car tire exploding before he sees the vehicle careen off the road and into a creek.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
Even the slightest misstep made me feel like I was about to careen out of control.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026
A daunting prospect after mechanical failure caused his Lotus car to careen into barriers at 160mph in Jerez in 1990.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026
The more worrisome sign came when the bond market began to careen off the edge.
From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2025
I prayed that the wheel of its chariot would break, and the moon would careen into a heavenly ditch.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
As the tram careens past, a delivery man can been seen leaping to safety from his bicycle, while a passerby also races out of the way.
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
He careens down the sheet of ice at 50 miles per hour, uses one of the final turns as a launchpad, flies out of the bob run and over a ski chalet to safety.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026
It never feels like Brooks has a grasp on the material, which careens aimlessly through Ella’s harried day-to-day in a handsomely bland, serviceable style.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
His experience, he said, has taught him how to mitigate the damage done when an opposing team member careens into you.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025
The bottle careens and thuds to the carpet, ink pours down over the skyscape, veiling Mrs. Smeath in Parker’s Washable Blue.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
A 37-year-old Oxnard man was driving the vehicle at a high rate of speed when he turned to the right, ran off the roadway, slammed off a rock and careened down a cliff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
This year, somehow, I careened straight from verdant, crisp summer food — cucumber salads, crisp chicken Caesar wraps, yogurt bowls, smoothies — into the warm-orange-and-brown spectrum of winter.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2025
Crypto executives careened around the U.A.E. capital, dashing between a half-dozen different conferences, a “Whale Only” night at a secluded beach club, and champagne-soaked parties aboard superyachts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 14, 2025
But inside the car, I steadily fed it power as I careened into the seemingly endless Turn 3, and felt it practically eat up asphalt through a slightly winding Turn 9.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
They hung out of attic windows, rode on car fenders, delivered the coal, moved into Medallion and moved out, visited cousins, plowed, hoisted, lounged on the church steps, careened on the school playground.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
MLB is careening toward what is expected to be a ferocious labor fight this winter that could result in missed games for the first time since the player strike that canceled the 1994 World Series.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
But here’s what excites me most about the brave new world of mathematics the A.I. industry has us careening toward: We will have a much sharper sense of what the truly difficult problems are.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2026
"I fear we are careening toward a future with fewer and fewer journalists to do the expensive, difficult work of original reporting," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
How much can one film really change a world that seems like it’s careening faster and faster toward annihilation?
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2026
A direct impact on one galaxy by another can send the constituent stars pouring and careening through intergalactic space, a galaxy wasted.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
