Tilters

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Those who cause objects or surfaces to lean or incline at an angle ; individuals participating in competitive contests involving the use of lances or jousting poles ; mechanisms or devices designed to pivot or adjust the elevation of another component
2. Persons who adjust the position of something to a slant or slope ; combatants engaging in medieval-style jousting matches or tournaments ; apparatus that change the tilt or angle of equipment for functional purposes
3. Actors who make something lean or tip from its usual upright state ; participants in mounted martial contests featuring lance strikes ; contraptions used to raise, lower, or incline parts of machinery or furniture

Etymology: "Tilters" is the plural of "tilter", a word formed simply from "tilt" plus the agent suffix "-er", meaning one who tilts. The tilt itself was the medieval contest in which mounted knights charged at one another with lances, and a tilter was the rider who took part in it. The suffix has a long ancestry: it descends through Old English "-ere" and Middle English "-ere" from the Latin suffix "-arius", which English inherited via Old French "-ier" before reaching the form we use today. Because the word is a straightforward compound of an existing verb and a suffix, its meaning followed the sport: "tilt" named both the charge and the jousting ground, and the tilter was whoever rode in it.

Synonyms: leaners, slopers, incliners, benders, slanting people

Antonyms: straighteners, levelers, raisers, straighteners, uprighters