Find the word definition

Crossword clues for kilter

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
kilter
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
throw
▪ It only takes a small slippage for government revenue and spending forecasts to be thrown out of kilter.
▪ In the end, though, it is erratic instrumental balancing that throws the performance out of kilter.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
kilter

kilter \kil"ter\ (k[i^]l"t[~e]r), n. [Cf. Gael. & Ir. cealt clothes, Gael. cealltair spear, castle, cause, Prov. E. kilter tool, instrument. Cf. Kilt.] Regular order or proper condition. Same as kelter, but kilter is the more common spelling in the U. S. Used chiefly in the phrase out of kilter, meaning out of order or irregular in some manner. [Also spelled kelter.]

kilter

Kelter \Kel"ter\, n. [Cf. Gael. & Ir. cealt clothes, Gael. cealltair spear, castle, cause, Prov. E. kilter tool, instrument. Cf. Kilt.] Regular order or proper condition. [Usually written kilter in th U. S.] [Colloq., chiefly British spelling]

If the organs of prayer be out of kelter or out of tune, how can we pray?
--Barrow.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
kilter

in out of kilter (1620s) variant of English dialectal kelter (c.1600) "good condition, order," of unknown origin.

Wiktionary
kilter

n. Good form, order or condition; fettle.

WordNet
kilter

n. in working order; "out of kilter"; "in good kilter" [syn: kelter]

Usage examples of "kilter".

I returned to the street, at the same time summoning my dignity, which Dido had shoved out of kilter.

However, note how the belt stars and the Milky Way appear out of kilter and askew in relation to the ground plan of the three Pyramids and the Nile.

As the genes of other species were spliced onto the basic Tursiops model, a few things had been thrown out of kilter.

She felt unsteady, not at all in control, as if all the events of this evening had thrown both her thinking and her emotions out of kilter.

Whatever the mechanism that seeds the timelines with life forms, it was out of kilter here.

Because the polar axis and the colures form an invisible whole, the entire frame is thrown out of kilter if one part is moved.

Some while agotime runs out of kilter in your country, but it was about the season when Angavar High King traded places with one of your kings for a year and a day, and the two of them became friendssome while ago, I was challenged to a game of Kings-and-Queens, or Battle Royal, as it is sometimes known.

That dinner party on Boxing Day had thrown my whole emotional and intellectual life out of kilter.

I told him the idea about the electrical nature of the Pharos mutational filter, and gave him a neat chain of hences and therefores leading him through the possible electrosensitivity of the triggers to the possibility of throwing the triggers out of kilter using magnets.

Peculiarly out of kilter with the rest of the ship, the bridge stood on a perfect horizontal plane.

Type three, the 'half and half' timeslide implementations, are a nuisance to maintain, they get out of kilter at the drop of a whisker, and they fail without warning, which we do not need in these circumstances.

Type three, the ‘half and half’ timeslide implementations, are a nuisance to maintain, they get out of kilter at the drop of a whisker, and they fail without warning, which we do not need in these circumstances.

But this minor element of speculation helps Palwick develop a very moving story of family dynamics and grief, nudging reality just a bit out of kilter so that we can see things more clearly.

But tiffs minor element of speculation helps Palwick develop a very moving story of family dynamics and grief, nudging reality just a bit out of kilter so that we can see more clearly.

Maybe the ship was on fire, maybe the nuclear power plant had gone out of kilter.