off-kilter

[awf-kil-ter, of‐]

adjective

1. not exactly straight or balanced; askew; uneven.

   off-kilter paintings on every wall.

2. not completely well; somewhat ill.

   still off-kilter two weeks after the flu.

3. unusual or eccentric; unconventional.

   short stories with off-kilter endings.

Word History and Origins

Origin of off-kilter¹

First recorded in 1925–30; off ( def. ) + kilter ( def. )

Example Sentences

Kramer walks that entire distance backward to keep her eyes peeled for an off-kilter balloon.

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Since his homecoming—and hospitalization—Seymour has bewildered and occasionally frightened everyone he comes in contact with, except Sybil, a little girl he encounters who is enchanted by his banter and off-kilter stories.

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Many of these stories are previously uncollected, making the book a must-read for both longtime fans and newcomers to Lethem’s expansive, off-kilter sensibility.

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Like many of the characters in Gunn’s off-kilter series that is a spinoff of 2021’s “The Suicide Squad,” Adebayo first arrived in Peacemaker’s life struggling with who she was and what she could stand for.

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Whether by happenstance or subconscious inspiration, “Addicted to the Violence” is a turbulent, inadvertently prescient album for unstable times — a barbed, off-kilter amalgam of metal, alt-rock, pop, Cali-punk, prog, Mediterranean folk, alt-country and psychedelia — sometimes within the same song.

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