Hist. [A modernization of chiula, the Latinized form, in Nennius, of OE. cíol, céol:—WGer. kiul, ON. kjóll, barge, large ship, see KEEL. In Gildas it appears as cyula. Used occasionally by modern historical writers.] An Old English or Norse ship of war.
c. 550. Gildas, xxiii. Tribus, ut lingua ejus, exprimitur, cyulis, nostra lingua longis navibus. [Hence Bæda I. xv. tribus longis navibus. OE. Chron. anno 449 On þrim ceolum.]
a. 800. Nennius, xxviii. Tres chiulæ.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 11. The tradition is, that they came to his aid with three chiule (keels, i. e. ships), carrying sixteen hundred men.
1849. Lytton, K. Arthur, II. xciv. I. 86. Your chiules rot within your crowded bay.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., iv. 118. The Humber … Hither the Anglians, Danes, and Northmen directed their chiules.
[18[?]. Gildas, § 23, in Bohn, 6 O. E. Chron., 310. In three cyuls, as they call them.]
