Other forms: careening, careened, careens
To careen is to rush along, tilting and out of control. Careen down the hill, careening round the corner, the lorry careened off the road.
The original meaning is nautical and quite different: to careen a ship is to heel it over on a beach to work on the hull. The rushing sense came from confusion with career, the verb, and is now standard whatever the objection.
1verbcareenTo rush along, tilting and out of control.
“The lorry careened down the hill and crashed into a wall.”
2verbheelTo heel a ship over to work on its hull.
“The crew careened the ship on the beach at low tide and scraped the barnacles off its hull.”
careen is a rushing, or a heeling over.
French carene means a keel, from Latin carina. To careen a ship was to heel it over; the rushing sense came from confusion with career.
French
carène
English, today
careen
Borrowed from French carène. late 16th century, from French carène (“keel”), from Italian carena, from Latin carīna (“keel of a ship”). a doublet of carene and carina.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs