tilt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɪlt/
rhymes: -ɪlt
Forms: form: tilts
Etymology: From Middle English tilte, from Old English *tyltan, *tieltan (“to be unsteady”), related to the adjective tealt (“unsteady”), from Proto-West Germanic *talt, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *del-, *dul- (“to shake, hesitate”), see also Dutch touteren (“to tremble”), North Frisian talt, tolt (“unstable, shaky”). Cognate with Icelandic tölt (“an ambling pace”).
The nominal sense of "a joust" appears around 1510, presumably derived from the barrier which separated the combatants, which suggests connection with tilt "covering". The modern transitive meaning is from 1590; the intransitive use appears 1620.
The sense of gaming frustration is said to originate with pinball.
Senses: glosses: A slope or inclination.
glosses: The inclination of part of the body, such as backbone, pelvis, head, etc.
topics: arts
hobbies
lifestyle
photography
glosses: The controlled vertical movement of a camera, or a device to achieve this.
examples: text: Justs and tilts were held here weekly, while the great tourneys that occurred less often were given upon a field outside the castle wall upon the floor of the valley.
ref: 1928, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 11, in Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, page 139:
glosses: A jousting contest. (countable)
examples: text: City will now make the Premier League an even bigger priority, while regrouping and planning again for what they hope will be another tilt at the Champions League next season.
ref: 2011 December 7, Phil McNulty, “Man City 2 - 0 Bayern Munich”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: An attempt at something, such as a tilt at public office.
examples: text: His Majesty[…]entertain'd him with the Slaughter of two or three of his Liege Subjects, whom he very dexterously put to Death with the Tilt of his Lance.
ref: 1716 December 9 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 10. Wednesday, November 28. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:
glosses: A thrust, as with a lance.
glosses: A tilt hammer.
examples: text: to go on tilt
text: In his landmark book, The Mental Game of Poker, sports psychologist Jared Tendler defines "tilt" as "anger + bad play". In short, you lose your mental equilibrium and start playing below your best, often making big mistakes. Tilt is caused by many different factors and Tendler defines seven types of tilt.
ref: 2014 September 10, Amit Varma, “Magnus Carlsen's weakness”, in The Economic Times, Mumbai: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2014:
text: In his follow-up video below, ScrapComputer goes into a long list of suggestions for stopping and avoiding tilt while you play League of Legends.
ref: 2016 February 26, Philip Kollar, “What is 'tilt' in League of Legends, and how can you avoid it?”, in Polygon, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2023:
text: Doing the same thing and expecting a different result can drive you insane, especially League of Legends. As you keep losing, you become tilted and get frustrated. No matter how mechanically gifted you are, it can't help ameliorate tilt.
ref: 2019 October 15, Hawken Miller, “How to quickly climb the League of Legends ranked ladder”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2023:
text: As long as you know that being consistent and sticking to a strategy in the long run, will win you money, you can avoid tilt and negative emotions.
ref: 2022 March 16, “Online poker: from beginner to pro”, in Times of Malta, archived from the original on 21 Apr 2022:
topics: board-games
card-games
chess
games
poker
video-games
glosses: A state of frustration and worsened performance resulting from a series of losses.
Derived terms: canthal tilt