stilt

[ stilt ]
See synonyms for stilt on Thesaurus.com
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.

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

  2. 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.

  3. British Dialect.

    • a plow handle.

    • a crutch.

verb (used with object)
  1. to raise on or as if on stilts.

Origin of stilt

1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English stilte; cognate with Low German stilte “pole,” German Stelze

Other words from stilt

  • stiltlike, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use stilt in a sentence

  • A-course, when I reached Chicago, the first 238 thing I done was to take a fly at that railroad on stilts.

    Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher | Eleanor Gates
  • The marshals were pierrots and clowns on long stilts, who towered in a ghostly way above the crowd.

  • He was a very big man, with great red cheeks that hung over his collar like blown bladders, and was always on stilts.

    East Anglia | J. Ewing Ritchie
  • "She certainly could move her proud stilts a little quicker when she sees how Mea is running," Kurt said angrily.

    Maezli | Johanna Spyri
  • I now abandoned my stilts and my bow and arrows, and marched off with my chiefs in the direction of our late opponents.

British Dictionary definitions for stilt

stilt

/ (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

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

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

Origin of stilt

1
C14 (in the sense: crutch, handle of a plough): related to Low German stilte pole, Norwegian stilta

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