tilt
1- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- (at) full tilt. full tilt.
- tilt at windmills, to contend against imaginary opponents or injustices.Also fight with windmills.
Origin of tilt
1tilt
1- 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
- 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
Word Origin for tilt
tilt
2- an awning or canopy, usually of canvas, for a boat, booth, etc
- (tr) to cover or provide with a tilt
Word Origin for tilt
Word Origin and History for tiltable
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.
tilt
"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).
tilt
"condition of being tilted," 1837, from tilt (v.).