atilt meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

atilt

adj

Etymology From a- + tilt.

At an angle from the vertical or horizontal.

The child listened, her head atilt.
When I came to the river, I ached in sympathy with the shipping painfully atilt on the rock-like surface of the brine, which broke against the piers, and sprayed itself over them like showers of powdered quartz.1902, William Dean Howells, “Worries of a Winter Walk”, in Literature and Life, New York: Harper, page 37:

2 more examples

In other villages the shawled women sat knitting behind piles of beets and cabbages and apples, their farm-carts atilt in the sun.1918, Winston Churchill, chapter 3, in A Traveller in War-Time, New York: Macmillan, page 77:
1954, Allen Ginsberg, Journal entry in Gordon Ball (ed.), Journals, New York: Grove, 1977, p. 70, Pink bedroom lamp, shade atilt over Uncle Abe’s ancient clean radio,

adv

Etymology From a- + tilt.

At an angle from the vertical or horizontal; at the point of falling over.

He wore his hat rakishly atilt.
Ale should not be drunk under five dayes old; new Ale is unwholsome, sowre Ale, and dead, and Ale which do stand atilt is most unwholesome.1659, Nicholas Culpeper, “Doctor Diets Directory”, in Culpeper’s School of Physick, London: N. Brook, page 300:

3 more examples

In that nice Moment, as another Lye Stood just a-tilt, the Minister came by.1733, Alexander Pope, The Impertinent, London: John Wileord, page 12:
[…] the slope flattened to a wide shelf where limestone cropped through the heather and many huge boulders were scattered atilt.1928, Maurice Walsh, chapter 24, in While Rivers Run, London: W. & R. Chambers:
Had earthquakes shaken the windows atilt so they mirrored intruders with distorted gleams and glares?1969, Ray Bradbury, “The Haunting of the New”, in I Sing the Body Electric!, New York: Knopf, page 136:

Tilting or as if tilting (charging with a lance, like a knight on horseback in a joust).

to run / ride atilt at someone or something
What will you do, good grey-beard? break a lance, And run a tilt at death within a chair?1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

3 more examples

The shadow of death to David is but the shadow of evill. Though ten thousand Curiassiers run upon him atilt with envenom’d and poysoned spears, he layes him down in the bosome of God, he sleeps in peace;1669, Samuel Lee, chapter 7, in Contemplations on Mortality, London, page 69:
Make feeble Ladies, in their Works, To fight like Termagants and Turks; To lay their native Arms aside, Their modesty, and ride a-stride; To run a-Tilt at Men, and wield Their naked tools in open field;1663 (indicated as 1664), [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 79:
1895, F. F. Montrésor, Into the Highways and Hedges, New York: Appleton, Part 2, Chapter 9, p. 235, Other people may ride atilt against all the problems one bruises head and heart over. Good luck go with them, and more power to their elbows!

prep

Etymology From a- + tilt.

Diagonally over or across.

A butterfly flew into the garden, danced a stately minuet mid-air, courtsied, and settled atilt the top rail of the old “snake fence.”1911, Jennie Brooks, Under Oxford Trees, Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham, page 80:
1982, Jean Scott Wood Creighton (as J. S. Borthwick), The Case of the Hook-billed Kites, New York: St. Martin’s Press, Chapter 11, p. 29, [He] was balanced atilt a wooden chair, his legs resting on a low file cabinet.

1 more example

With his shy grin, bushy black hair, and thick plastic-framed glasses riding atilt his nose, Reza looked like a high school techno-whiz temporarily locked out of the computer lab.2004, Tracy Dahlby, chapter 11, in Allah’s Torch,, New York: William Morrow, page 146:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.