I. ˈtilt verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English tulten, tilten; akin to Old English tealt unstable, tealtian, tealtrian to totter, stumble, waver, Middle Dutch touteren to tremble, Swedish tulta to waddle, Norwegian dialect tylta to walk softly
transitive verb
1. : to cause to slope : incline , slant , tip
tilt a chair against a wall
tilted sedimentary beds — Journal of Geology
2. : to pour forth contents by tipping : empty or unload by inclining
tilt a cart
3.
a. : to point or thrust in or as if in a tilt
tilt a lance
b. : to make a tilt or rush at : charge against
tilt an adversary
4. : to hammer or forge with a tilt hammer
tilt a bar of iron
5. : to rotate (a camera) about a horizontal axis that is at right angles to the lens axis so as to elevate or lower the viewing angle
intransitive verb
1. : to move or shift so as to lean or incline : heel over : tip , slant
the board tilted up when he stepped on it
the tree tilts to the south
2. : to move up and down : sway unsteadily : seesaw , pitch
bird … tilting among the leaves — Amy Lowell
boats tilting on the waves
3.
a. : to engage in a combat with lances : ride or charge and thrust with a lance : joust
b. : to engage in an altercation or controversy : make an impetuous attack
tilt at wrongs
4. : rush , burst
tilt through the crowd
tilt into a room
5. : to incline from a horizontal or vertical position
roads that rise and dip and tilt past lively brooks — Frederick Nebel
tilting strata
6. : to tilt a camera
•
- tilt at windmills
II. noun
( -s )
1.
a.
(1) : a military exercise on horseback in which two combatants (as knights in armor) charging with lances or similar weapons try to unhorse each other : joust
(2) : a similar exercise in which an armed rider charges at a mark
b. : a tournament of tilts — compare quintain 2
2.
a. : an encounter in which opponents attack each other in a manner suggestive of that of tilting knights : altercation , dispute
had a sharp tilt with the manager
fiery tilts against the evils of his day — Sarah G. Bowerman
vocal tilts of legislators — T.C.Desmond
b. : speed — used especially in the phrase at full tilt
3.
a. : the act or fact of tilting : the state or position of being tilted : inclination from a vertical or horizontal position
give a board a tilt
gave him a signal with a tilt of her gray head — Marcia Davenport
b. : a sloping surface
warps, folds, or tilts that exist in rocks of the earth's crust — J.D.Forrester
4. : black-necked stilt
5. : helve hammer
6. : a contrivance used in fishing through the ice in which the tilting of a piece gives notice of the biting of a fish
7. : any of various sports resembling or suggesting tilting with lances ; especially : a water sport in which the contestants stand on logs or in canoes or boats and thrust with poles
8. : lack of parallelism between the plane of film in an aerial camera that is pointed downward and the plane of the ground
•
- at tilt
III. adjective
Etymology: tilt (II)
1. : tilted
the tilt world returns from sun to ice — Philip Booth
2. : that is emptied by tilting
tilt bucket
tilt pot
tilt wagon
IV. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English teld, tild, telte tent, canopy, from Old English teld; akin to Middle Low German & Middle Dutch telt tent, Old High German zelt, Old Norse tjald, and perhaps to Latin dolare to hew — more at condole
1. : a cloth covering or canopy (as of a cart, wagon, boat, or stall)
bench under a little canvas tilt — J.G.Cozzens
gaily colored tilts of the market stalls — Courier (London)
2. Newfoundland & Labrador : a log cabin or lean-to in which the logs are set upright
V. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
: to cover or provide with a tilt
a tilted jousting field