tilt

[tilt]

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verb (used with object)

to cause to lean, incline, slope, or slant.

to rush at or charge, as in a joust.

to hold poised for attack, as a lance.

to move (a camera) up or down on its vertical axis for photographing or televising a moving character, object, or the like.

verb (used without object)

to move into or assume a sloping position or direction.

to strike, thrust, or charge with a lance or the like (usually followed by at).

to engage in a joust, tournament, or similar contest.

(of a camera) to move on its vertical axis: The camera tilts downward for an overhead shot.

to incline in opinion, feeling, etc.; lean: She's tilting toward the other candidate this year.

noun

an act or instance of tilting.

the state of being tilted; a sloping position.

a slope.

a joust or any other contest.

a dispute; controversy.

a thrust of a weapon, as at a tilt or joust.

(in aerial photography) the angle formed by the direction of aim of a camera and a perpendicular to the surface of the earth.

Idioms

(at) full tilt. full tilt.

tilt at windmills, to contend against imaginary opponents or injustices.Also fight with windmills.

Origin of tilt

1300–50; Middle English tylten to upset, tumble < Scandinavian; compare dialectal Norwegian tylta to tiptoe, tylten unsteady; akin to Old English tealt unsteady, tealtian to totter, amble, Middle Dutch touteren to sway

Related formstilt·a·ble, adjectivetilt·er, noun

tilt

[tilt]

noun

a cover of coarse cloth, canvas, etc., as for a wagon.

an awning.

verb (used with object)

to furnish with a tilt.

Origin of tilt

1400–50; late Middle English, variant of tild, Old English teld; cognate with German Zelt tent, Old Norse tjald tent, curtain

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for tilt

inclination, angle, slant, leaning, incline, shift, tip, lurch, dip, bend, sway, thrust, rake, gradient, pitch, list, slide, grade, cant, fall

Examples from the Web for tilt

Contemporary Examples of tilt

Seasons on Earth and Titan are both due to the tilt of their axis—the way the North Pole faces—relative to their orbit.
A Cloud Forms Over Saturn’s Mysterious Moon
Matthew R. Francis
August 17, 2014
When out and about, if we feel threatened, as we always do, we tilt our heads back and cry out, “ALL THE SINGLE LADIES!”
Getting to Know the ‘Beyoncé Voter’
Kelly Williams Brown
July 7, 2014
This tilt towards of the financial elites, as Elizabeth Warren has noted, occurred during both the Bush and Obama Administrations.
Dawn of the Age of Oligarchy: the Alliance between Government and the 1%
Joel Kotkin
June 28, 2014
But administration officials and panel members say he in no way sought to tilt the outcome in one direction or the other.
Obama’s Defining Fight: How He Will Take On the NSA’s Surveillance State in 2014
Daniel Klaidman
December 31, 2013
In most places the local social establishment that dictates the agenda will tilt right.
How Legislators View Their Constituents
Michael Tomasky
September 24, 2013

Historical Examples of tilt

Yet he can tilt or play his part at hand-strokes as merrily as ever.
The White Company
Arthur Conan Doyle
I understand that all right, but I am still in the dark as to what is causing this increase of tilt.
The Solar Magnet
Sterner St. Paul Meek
There was a momentous promise in his gravity, a hint of catastrophe in the tilt of his head.
Once to Every Man
Larry Evans
As anticipated, the tilt had been rifled of its contents, chiefly flour and pork.
The Gaunt Gray Wolf
Dillon Wallace
The tilt itself, however, had not been burned, and was otherwise undisturbed.
The Gaunt Gray Wolf
Dillon Wallace

British Dictionary definitions for tilt

tilt

verb

to incline or cause to incline at an angle

(usually intr) to attack or overthrow (a person or people) in a tilt or joust

(when intr, often foll by at) to aim or thrustto tilt a lance

(tr) to work or forge with a tilt hammer

noun

a slope or angleat a tilt

the act of tilting

(esp in medieval Europe)

a jousting contest
a thrust with a lance or pole delivered during a tournament

an attempt to win a contest

See tilt hammer

full tilt or at full tilt at full speed or force

Derived Formstilter, noun

Word Origin for tilt

Old English tealtian; related to Dutch touteren to totter, Norwegian tylta to tiptoe, tylten unsteady

tilt

noun

an awning or canopy, usually of canvas, for a boat, booth, etc

verb

(tr) to cover or provide with a tilt

Word Origin for tilt

Old English teld; related to Old High German zelt tent, Old Norse tjald tent

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tilt

Old English *tyltan "to be unsteady," from tealt "unsteady," from Proto-Germanic *taltaz (cf. Old Norse tyllast "to trip," Swedish tulta "to waddle," Norwegian tylta "to walk on tip-toe," Middle Dutch touteren "to swing"). Meaning "to cause to lean, tip, slope" (1590s) is from sense of "push or fall over." Intransitive sense first recorded 1620s. Related: Tilted; tilting.

n.1

"a joust, a combat," 1510s, perhaps from tilt (v.) on the notion of "to lean" into an attack, but the word originally seems to have been the name of the barrier which separated the combatants, which suggests connection with tilt in an earlier meaning "covering of coarse cloth, an awning" (mid-15c.), which is probably from tilt (v.), but perhaps related to or influenced by tent, or it may be from a Germanic source akin to Old English beteldan "to cover." The verb is recorded from 1590s. Hence, also full tilt (c.1600).

n.2

"condition of being tilted," 1837, from tilt (v.).