stilt

American  

[stilt] / stɪlt /

noun

1. one of two poles, each with a support for the foot at some distance above the bottom end, enabling the wearer to walk with their feet above the ground.

2. one of several posts supporting a structure built above the surface of land or water.

3. Ceramics. a three-armed support for an object being fired.

4. any of several wading birds with very long pink legs and a long, slender bill, including the black-and-white Cladorhynchus leucocephalus and Himantopus himantopus.

5. British Dialect.

   1. a plow handle.

   2. a crutch.

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verb (used with object)

1. to raise on or as if on stilts.

stilt British  

/ stɪlt /

noun

1. either of a pair of two long poles with footrests on which a person stands and walks, as used by circus clowns

2. a long post or column that is used with others to support a building above ground level

3. any of several shore birds of the genera Himantopus and Cladorhynchus, similar to the avocets but having a straight bill

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verb

1. (tr) to raise or place on or as if on stilts

Other Word Forms

• stiltlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of stilt

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English stilte; cognate with Low German stilte “pole,” German Stelze

Example Sentences

The Mother Ginger sequence, which usually finds young dancers emerging from the giant skirt of a dancer on stilts, is completely reimagined here.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s shifted over the years — there were stilt walkers for a bit, and Sawdust’s historical site notes there was once a mascot in “Jelf,” part jester, part elf.

From Los Angeles Times

But Dr Lari argues building an entire village on stilts would be unfeasible and too expensive.

From BBC

Every family—including Sothea and his wife, who took in six children—got its own wooden house, built Cambodian-style on stilts on a leafy riverside property Johnson purchased in Phnom Penh.

From The Wall Street Journal

The trail eventually took me into the waterways of Makoko, one of the city's poorest districts, where wooden houses balanced on stilts rise on the edge of Lagos Lagoon.

From BBC

Related Words

• angular
• gangly
• gaunt
• lanky
• rangy
• sinewy
• skinny
• slender
• slim
• sparse
• svelte
• wiry