See Also: Stilt(medicine)
stilt(1)(dictionary)
stilt(2)(dictionary)
stilt(encyclopedia)
stilt(dictionary)

stilt(1) (iou)



stilt noun. ME.
[Corresp. to Low German, Flemish stilte, from Germanic, and rel. to Swedish stylta, Norwegian, Danish stylte (from Germanic base of STOUT adjective), Middle Low German, Middle Dutch stelte (Dutch stelt), Old High German stelza (German Stelze).]
Each of the handles of a plough or other farm implement. Usu. in pl. dial. ME.
A crutch. obsolete exc. dial. ME.
Either of a pair of poles with supports for the feet, enabling a person to walk with the feet some distance above the ground. LME.
on stilts fig. bombastic(ally), stilted(ly).
George Eliot Those mysterious giants were really men..balancing themselves on stilts. fig.: H. Caine Lifting himself into notoriety on the stilts of blasphemy.
b. transf. In pl. Long slender legs, esp. of a bird. L16.
a. Any of a set of posts or piles on which a building is raised from the ground or above water-level. E18.
Guardian A Westbound motor road partly on stilts. P. Marshall Houses huddled on their stilts above the..mud.
b. Pottery. A device for supporting and separating ceramic ware in a kiln, usu. consisting of three arms radiating from the centre with an upright point at each end. E19.
c. Architecture. A vertical masonry course from which an arch or vault springs at a height above the general level, or placed above or below a column to increase the height. M19.
Any of various wading birds of the genera Himantopus and Cladorynchus, having very long slender legs and slender sharp bills. Also more fully stilt-plover. L18.
Comb.: stilt bug any insect of the heteropteran family Berytidae, whose members are characteristically long-legged and feed on plants; stilt heel (a shoe with) a high heel; stilt-heeled adjective (of a shoe) high-heeled; stilt-plover: see sense 5 above; stilt-root an aerial root, arising from the trunk or lower branches of a tree, and acting to provide support; stilt sandpiper a long-legged N. American sandpiper, Micropalama himantopus.
stilty adjective (a) resembling stilts; (of legs) long and stiff in action; (b) = STILTED 3: E19.