[f. TILT v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of TILT v.1 in sense 5; charging on horseback with a lance against an opponent, or a mark; justing.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 250. Having unhappily slaine his onely sonne while he trained him at Tilting.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 190. On the right hand as you come in … is a place for Tylting, called Tournelles.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 250. The Armour People put on at tilting with Lances.
1893. Kate Sanborn, Truthf. Woman in S. California, 172. The tournament is exciting, where skilful riders try tilting at rings, trying to take as many rings as possible on lance while galloping by.
b. With a and pl. A tilt, a just. Now rare or Obs.
c. 1618. Moryson, Itin., IV. V. i. (1903), 465. They haue Tiltings, Runnings with lances against a Post Armed like a man at all peeces.
1621. Sir W. Alexander, in Sidney’s Arcadia, III. (1629), 337. At a Tilting in Iberia … I ranne in a Pastorall shew against the Corinthian Knights.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xxxi. 197. At a tilting at Greenwich.
c. transf. and fig.
1668. Howe, Bless. Righteous (1825), 175. A perpetual hostility, a very tilting at his cross.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, V. ix. His Brother and the Lieutenant were gone out with a Design of Tilting.
1878. Stevenson, Edinburgh (1889), 2. Perpetual tilting against squalls.
2. The action of TILT v.1 in sense 4; inclination from the vertical or horizontal; sloping, slanting.
1658. Osborn, Adv. Son (1673), 70. Though a Vessel may yield the more for tilting or stirring.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 655/2. This tilting forwards of the apex gives the heart a pulsation against the ribs.
1850. Dana, Geol., iii. 238. There are no tiltings—no anticlinal and synclinal valleys.
1878. Abney, Photogr. (1881), 245. Tilting should be cautiously and sparingly used.
† b. concr. (pl.) The dregs of the liquor in a cask, collected by tilting it. Obs.
1611. Cotgr., Bessieres, the tiltings, dregs, or bottomes of low-running wine, &c.
3. Working with a tilt-hammer.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1173. Condensed … by the operation of tilting, under a powerful hammer driven by machinery.
1864. Strauss, etc., Engl. Workshops, 88. The blistered steel is prepared for tilting.
4. attrib. and Comb. (mostly in sense 1), as tilting armor, bout, encounter, field, † furniture, ground, horse, match, sport; tilting bucket conveyor, a means of transporting coal or other substances, constructed of two endless chains between which on trunnions are slung buckets, the contents of which are tilted or tipped at any given spot by a tippling device; tilting coffer, a chest carved with representations of tournaments; tilting-fillet, a wedge-shaped slip of wood placed under the front edge of the first or lowest course of slates in a roof, to give to that course the same inclination as in the courses above; tilting-gauntlet, a form of gauntlet used in tilting, having a hook with which it could be fastened so as to secure the lance in the grasp of the hand; tilting-helm, -helmet, a large heavy helmet worn over the ordinary one in tilting, completely covering the head and face, with slits for breathing and vision; tilting-lance, a form of lance used in tilting, often ornamental, with a large guard or vamplate, and a blunt point or a coronal; tilting-mill = tilt-mill (see TILT sb.2 10); tilting-shield, a shield used in tilting, so constructed as to cause the opponent’s lance to glance off sideways; tilting-spear = tilting-lance; tilting-staff, a staff used instead of a lance in tilting; tilting-target = tilting-shield; tilting-yard = TILT-YARD.
1819. Scott, Lett. to D. Terry, 18 April, in Lockhart. I see Mr. Bullock … advertises his museum for sale. I wonder if a good set of real *tilting armour could be got cheap there. Ibid. (1827), Chron. Canongate, vi. A suit of tilting armour of bright steel, inlaid with silver.
1754. Richardson, Grandison (1810), I. ii. 5. We had … a *tilting-bout … but are sworn friends now.
1911. Encycl. Brit., VII. 56. The gravity or *tilting bucket conveyor can be used as a combined elevator and conveyor. Ibid., VI. 107. There is a whole class of chests known as *‘tilting coffers.’
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. ii. To wage *Tilting incounters.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 329. In open battle or the *tilting-field.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 399. The slater … nails down these *tilting fillets.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 83. Tilting fillets are used to give a slight inclination to the verge or border-slates, where they butt against brick-work.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 34. *Tilting Furniture, emblazon’d Shields,… Caparisons and Steeds.
1850. Marsden, Early Purit. (1853), 77. Cartwright, if dissatisfied, should have … challenged other hearers than his pupils, and upon some other *tilting-ground than the fenced enclosures of a university.
1880. Academy, 20 Nov., 371/3. A very fine *tilting helm with the wooden crest of Sir John Gostwick, Master of the Horse to Henry VIII.
1846. Fairholt, Costume in Eng., 119. [The figure] represents [Sir Geoffrey Loutterell] … receiving from the ladies of his family his *tilting-helmet, shield, and pavon.
1623. in Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1848), II. 385. He hath … sent for his arms and *tilting horses.
1863. Thornbury, True as Steel, III. 318. This iron hand of mine can handle a *tilting lance better than a pen.
1854. Milman, Lat. Chr., VIII. V. III. 359. Abélard became the most powerful combatant in the intellectual *tilting matches of the schools.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 61. These are … the foundations of kindred works, such as … *tilting-mills.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., I. Wks. 1856, I. 13. He is made like a *tilting staffe.
1606. Drumm. of Hawth., Let. fr. Greenwich, Wks. (1711), 232. His lodging … was in the house of the *tilting yard, where the king bore him company at supper.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 10. The same Court serves for a Tilting-yard.
