[f. TILT v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who tilts or justs; a combatant in a tilt; also fig.
1611. Florio, Fólla … a course in the field where many horsemen or tilters, after they haue runne single one to one, they runne pell mell altogether.
1612. Webster, White Devil, III. i. None are judges at tilting, but those that have bene old tilters.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas, V. i. (1782), II. 148. I was shocked at the inequality of the combat, and, as I am naturally a tilter, flew to the assistance of the old man.
1827. Scott, Tales Grandfather, Ser. I. xxiii. (1828), II. 216. The best tilter with the spear received from the King a lance with a head of pure gold.
1898. J. Hollingshead, Gaiety Chron., i. 37. I was always a tilter at windmills.
† b. A rapier or sword. slang. Obs.
1688. Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, II. Wks. 1720, IV. 47. Let me see your Porker; here’s a Porker! here’s a Tilter!
1691. Islington-Wells, 7. A young spruce City Fop,… With a Long-Wig and Tilter on.
1713. Steele, Guard., No. 143, ¶ 5. To … reduce their tilters to a more reputable, as well as a more portable size.
2. One who or that which tilts, inclines, or slopes (something) up or down; spec. (a) an apparatus for tilting a cask so as to empty it without stirring up the dregs; (b) a workman who tilts or empties out the coal into trucks at the pit’s mouth.
1630. Maldon, Essex, Documents, Bundle 217 No. 22. In the butterye, i beer stalle and i tilter, 8d.
1892. J. Lumsden, Sheeph. & Trotters, 213. The neatest tilter and emptier of a brandy and water glass I ever saw.
1896. Daily News, 1 May, 2/1. The only persons in the vicinity of the pit mouth were the banksmen, blacksmiths, and tilters.
3. One who works with a tilt-hammer.
1829. E. Elliott, Vill. Patriarch, I. i. Loud thumps the forge; bright burns the cottage fire, From which the tilter’s lad is loth to go.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 242. During the operation of hammering,… the tilter sits on a seat reaching nearly to the ground.
