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tilt - 12 dictionary results

tilt

1  [tilt]
Use tilt in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to cause to lean, incline, slope, or slant.
2. to rush at or charge, as in a joust.
3. to hold poised for attack, as a lance.
4. 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)
5. to move into or assume a sloping position or direction.
6. to strike, thrust, or charge with a lance or the like (usually fol. by at).
7. to engage in a joust, tournament, or similar contest.
8. (of a camera) to move on its vertical axis: The camera tilts downward for an overhead shot.
9. to incline in opinion, feeling, etc.; lean: She's tilting toward the other candidate this year.
–noun
10. an act or instance of tilting.
11. the state of being tilted; a sloping position.
12. a slope.
13. a joust or any other contest.
14. a dispute; controversy.
15. a thrust of a weapon, as at a tilt or joust.
16. (in aerial photography) the angle formed by the direction of aim of a camera and a perpendicular to the surface of the earth.
—Idioms
17. (at) full tilt. full tilt.
18. tilt at windmills, to contend against imaginary opponents or injustices. Also, fight with windmills.
Origin:
1300–50; ME tylten to upset, tumble < Scand; cf. dial. Norw tylta to tiptoe, tylten unsteady; akin to OE tealt unsteady, tealtian to totter, amble, MD touteren to sway

Related forms:
tilt⋅a⋅ble, adjective
tilter, noun

tilt

2  [tilt] ,
–noun
1. a cover of coarse cloth, canvas, etc., as for a wagon.
2. an awning.
–verb (used with object)
3. to furnish with a tilt.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME, var. of tild, OE teld; c. G Zelt tent, ON tjald tent, curtain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To tilt
see·saw   (sē'sô')   
n.  
  1. A long plank balanced on a central fulcrum so that with a person riding on each end, one end goes up as the other goes down. Also called regionally dandle, dandle board, teedle board, teeter, teeterboard, teeter-totter, tilt1, tilting board. See Regional Note at teeter-totter.
  2. The act or game of riding a seesaw.
  3. A back-and-forth or up-and-down movement, as of the lead between two contesting parties.
intr.v.   see·sawed, see·saw·ing, see·saws
  1. To play on a seesaw.
  2. To move back and forth or up and down.

[Reduplication of saw1.]
tilt 1   (tĭlt)   
v.   tilt·ed, tilt·ing, tilts

v.   tr.
  1. To cause to slope, as by raising one end; incline: tilt a soup bowl; tilt a chair backward.
    1. To aim or thrust (a lance) in a joust.
    2. To charge (an opponent); attack.
  3. To forge with a tilt hammer.
v.   intr.
  1. To slope; incline. See Synonyms at slant.
  2. To favor one side over another in a dispute; lean: "His views tilt unmistakably to the Arab position" (William Safire).
    1. To fight with lances; joust.
    2. To engage in a combat or struggle; fight: tilting at injustices.
n.  
  1. The act of tilting or the condition of being tilted.
    1. An inclination from the horizontal or vertical; a slant: adjusting the tilt of a writing table.
    2. A sloping surface, as of the ground.
    3. A tendency to favor one side in a dispute: the court's tilt toward conservative rulings.
    4. An implicit preference; a bias: "pitilessly illuminates the inaccuracies and tilts of the press" (Nat Hentoff).
    5. A medieval sport in which two mounted knights with lances charged together and attempted to unhorse one another.
    6. A thrust or blow with a lance.
    1. A tendency to favor one side in a dispute: the court's tilt toward conservative rulings.
    2. An implicit preference; a bias: "pitilessly illuminates the inaccuracies and tilts of the press" (Nat Hentoff).
    3. A medieval sport in which two mounted knights with lances charged together and attempted to unhorse one another.
    4. A thrust or blow with a lance.
    1. A medieval sport in which two mounted knights with lances charged together and attempted to unhorse one another.
    2. A thrust or blow with a lance.
  5. A combat, especially a verbal one; a debate.
  6. A tilt hammer.
  7. New England See seesaw. See Regional Note at teeter-totter.

[Middle English tilten, to cause to fall, perhaps of Scandinavian origin.]
tilt'er n.
tilt 2   (tĭlt)   
n.  A canopy or an awning for a boat, wagon, or cart.
tr.v.   tilt·ed, tilt·ing, tilts
To cover (a vehicle) with a canopy or an awning.

[Middle English telte, tent, from Old English teld.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Tilt

Tilt\, n. [OE. telt (perhaps from the Danish), teld, AS. teld, geteld; akin to OD. telde, G. zelt, Icel. tjald, Sw. t["a]lt, tj["a]ll, Dan. telt, and ASThe beteldan to cover.]

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 boat (Naut.), a boat covered with canvas or other cloth.

Tilt roof (Arch.), a round-headed roof, like the canopy of a wagon.

Tilt

Tilt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tilted; p. pr. & vb. n. Tilting.] To cover with a tilt, or awning.

Tilt

Tilt\, v. t. [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. t["o]lt an ambling pace, t["o]lta to amble. Cf. Totter.]

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

Tilt\, v. i. 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

Tilt\, n. 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.

Full tilt, with full force. --Dampier.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : tilt
Spanish: inclinar, ladear,
German: (sich) neigen,
Japanese: 傾ける
More Translations »

tilt  (v.)
O.E. *tyltan "to be unsteady," from tealt "unsteady," from P.Gmc. *taltaz (cf. O.N. tyllast "to trip," Swed. tulta "to waddle," Norw. tylta "to walk on tip-toe," M.Du. touteren "to swing"). Meaning "to cause to lean, tip, slope" (1594) is from sense of "push or fall over." Intrans. sense first recorded 1626. Meaning "condition of being tilted" is recorded from 1837.

tilt  (n.)
"a joust, a combat," 1511, 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" (c.1440), which is probably from tilt (v.), but perhaps related to or influenced by tent, or it may be from a Gmc. source akin to O.E. beteldan "to cover." The verb is recorded from 1595. Hence, also full tilt (c.1600).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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