tilt
/tɪlt
/verb
1Move or cause to move into a sloping position: [no object]: the floor tilted slightly [with object]: he tilted his head to one side...
- When Morgan left in 1996 the balance of power was tilting gently again towards Kerry.
- It's a travesty because if anything the axis of power has been tilting back towards men in recent years.
- I eased off the brakes and pulled on the power lines by tilting the handles towards me.
Synonyms
lean, tip, list, slope, camber, bank, slant, incline, pitch, dip, cant, bevel, angle, cock, heel, careen, bend, be at an angle
1.1Change or cause to change in favour of one person or thing as opposed to another: [no object]: the balance of industrial power tilted towards the workers...
- The swing states are generally tilting to the Democratic nominee.
- In the particular case of Iraq in 2002, I believe the balance tilts strongly toward action.
- Under the protective shield provided by the central bank, the US financial system has became tilted toward relentless expansion.
1.2 [with object] Move (a camera) in a vertical plane: tilting the camera causes convergence of upright lines...
- He probably has no better idea than I do of why he occasionally tilts the camera or uses slow motion.
- Shooting from a high vantage point and tilting the camera down so it is more parallel to the plane of the foreground also helps extend the range of sharp focus.
- And if you tilt your camera to take a picture of a building or a monument, vertical lines will converge and rectangles turn into trapezoids.
2 [no object] (tilt at) historical (In jousting) thrust at with a lance or other weapon: he tilts at his prey figurative the lonely hero tilting at the system...
- The same might be said of rifle practice, as compared with bravely tilting at an enemy with spear and shield upon an open field of battle.
- But he's already tilted at, and failed to land, Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Germany's Commerzbank.
Synonyms
charge, rush, run;
lunge, prod, poke, jab, thrust
joust, tourney, enter the lists;
contend, spar, fight, clash
2.1 (tilt with) archaic Engage in a contest with: I resolved never to tilt with a French lady in compliment...
- National Guardsmen regularly tilted with protesting workers convinced that they were once again, as in 1830, about to be cheated of their revolution.
noun
1A sloping position or movement: the tilt of her head...
- But I could feel that we were descending slowly - after two solid days on aeroplanes, my inner ear was sensitive to the tilt of movement.
- A primary factor controlling the seasons and climate is the obliquity, the tilt of the planet's spin axis with respect to the normal to the orbital plane.
- Marked changes in the axial tilt of the Earth have also taken place.
Synonyms
slope, list, camber, gradient, bank, slant, incline, pitch, dip, cant, bevel, angle, heel;
North American grade, downgrade, upgrade
nod, dip, tip, inclination, cock, bob
1.1An upwards or downwards pivoting movement of a camera: pans and tilts...
- The upward tilt of the camera captures the perfect equipoise of the acrobat featured against a dull grey sky.
- If you do get a tripod make sure its a good one, you want a fluid head so your pans and tilts are smooth.
- The use of camera or lens movements, such as tilts, swings and rising or falling film and lens standards permits a further range of control.
1.2An inclination or bias: the paper’s tilt towards the United States...
- The tilt toward Israel will not soon be forgotten by the Arab world, but it will be harder for the administration to claim that Bush's support of Sharon has made a difference.
- However, the significance of the candidates' list resides not so much in the prospects of the individual contenders as in its heavy tilt towards the conservative camp.
- And it is a transition characterised by a tilt towards Islamist conservatism, with all its geopolitical consequences.
2 historical A combat for exercise or sport between two men on horseback with lances; a joust.
Synonyms
joust, tournament, tourney, lists, combat, contest, fight, duel
2.1 (tilt at) An attempt at winning (something) or defeating (someone): a tilt at the European Cup...
- Gary Dale, needless to say, has Frank's unqualified endorsement for the impending electoral tilt.
- He is calling on his Lancaster City players to go out on a high before he sits down and plots next season's tilt towards the Conference.
- And you might have thought he'd be happy he was not running for the Board this year after three consecutive tilts!
Synonyms
attempt on, bid for
informal go, crack, shot
3Canadian A small hut in a forest.
Phrases
(at) full tilt
tilt at windmills
Derivatives
tilter
- It has said the tilters would cut the fastest York-London journey time by nine minutes to just 1 hour, 32 minutes by 2004, with further improvements possible later if the railway infrastructure is upgraded.
- I bade him farewell, and pushed into the crowd to get a view of the tilters.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'fall or cause to fall, topple'): perhaps related to Old English tealt 'unsteady', or perhaps of Scandinavian origin and related to Norwegian tylten 'unsteady' and Swedish tulta 'totter'.
In its earliest sense, around 1300, tilt meant ‘to fall, topple’, and a jousting knight who tilted at a mounted opponent by riding with a lance levelled at his body was trying to knock him off his horse. This image of two armoured figures galloping towards each other is the source of at full tilt, ‘with maximum energy or force’. In the mock-heroic novel Don Quixote (1605–15) by Miguel de Cervantes, the hero Don Quixote sees a line of windmills on the horizons and takes them for giants, which he attacks. This gave us the expression tilt at windmills. See also quixotic