Tilting

How to spell tilting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tilting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tilting mean?

1. verbMoving into or holding a sloping position, so that one side is higher than the other.
2. verbTaking part in the medieval sport of jousting, charging on horseback with a lance.

Tilting in a sentence

• The old bookcase is tilting slightly toward the wall.

• The knights spent the morning tilting in the castle courtyard.

• She kept tilting her head to read the sideways label.

• The historical reenactment showed two riders tilting with wooden lances.

Where does tilting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word tilt comes from Middle English tilten, meaning to topple, totter, or fall over, which in turn grew out of Old English tealtian, meaning to be unsteady or to rock. The root is Germanic, and its earliest senses were all about losing balance rather than the neat angled lean we usually picture today. Over time the meaning settled from violent falling into the gentler idea of leaning or sloping at an angle. A separate strand of meaning arose in the medieval period, when tilt named the sport of jousting, where mounted knights charged and struck at one another, possibly because the combatants leaned forward in the charge. The -ing ending simply turns the verb into its continuous form, and because the t is single, writers are rarely tempted to double it the way they might in words like committing.

How the word is built

• tilt (to lean or slope)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)