tilt Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a combat between two mounted knights tilting against each other with blunted lances
    joust.
  2. noun a contentious speech act; a dispute where there is strong disagreement
    contestation; contention; arguing; argument; controversy; disputation; disceptation.
    • they were involved in a violent argument
  3. noun a slight but noticeable partiality
    • the court's tilt toward conservative rulings
  4. noun the property possessed by a line or surface that departs from the vertical
    lean; list; leaning; inclination.
    • the tower had a pronounced tilt
    • the ship developed a list to starboard
    • he walked with a heavy inclination to the right
  5. noun pitching dangerously to one side
    sway; careen; rock.
  6. verb to incline or bend from a vertical position
    tip; lean; slant; angle.
    • She leaned over the banister
  7. verb heel over
    cant; slant; cant over; pitch.
    • The tower is tilting
    • The ceiling is slanting
  8. verb move sideways or in an unsteady way
    wobble; careen; shift.
    • The ship careened out of control
  9. verb charge with a tilt

WordNet

Tilt noun
Etymology
OE. telt (perhaps from the Danish), teld, AS. teld, geteld; akin to OD. telde, G. zelt, Icel. tjald, Sw. tält, tjäll, Dan. telt, and ASThe beteldan to cover.
Definitions
  1. A covering overhead; especially, a tent. Denham.
  2. The cloth covering of a cart or a wagon.
  3. (Naut.) A cloth cover of a boat; a small canopy or awning extended over the sternsheets of a boat.
Tilt transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Tilted; present participle & verbal noun Tilting
Definitions
  1. To cover with a tilt, or awning.
Tilt transitive verb
Etymology
OE. tilten, tulten, to totter, fall, AS. tealt unstable, precarious; akin to tealtrian to totter, to vacillate, D. tel amble, ambling pace, G. zelt, Icel. tölt an ambling pace, tölta to amble. Cf. Totter.
Definitions
  1. To incline; to tip; to raise one end of for discharging liquor; as, to tilt a barrel.
  2. To point or thrust, as a lance.
    Sons against fathers tilt the fatal lance. J. Philips.
  3. To point or thrust a weapon at. Obs. Beau. & Fl.
  4. To hammer or forge with a tilt hammer; as, to tilt steel in order to render it more ductile.
Tilt intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To run or ride, and thrust with a lance; to practice the military game or exercise of thrusting with a lance, as a combatant on horseback; to joust; also, figuratively, to engage in any combat or movement resembling that of horsemen tilting with lances.
    He tilts With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast. Shak.
    Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast. Shak.
    But in this tournament can no man tilt. Tennyson.
    The fleet, swift tilting, o'er the urges flew. Pope.
  2. To lean; to fall partly over; to tip.
    The trunk of the body is kept from tilting forward by the muscles of the back. Grew.
Tilt noun
Definitions
  1. A thrust, as with a lance. Addison.
  2. A military exercise on horseback, in which the combatants attacked each other with lances; a tournament.
  3. See Tilt hammer, in the Vocabulary.
  4. Inclination forward; as, the tilt of a cask. Dampier.

Webster 1913