Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Good condition; proper form.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Order; proper form, adaptation, or condition: only in the colloquial phrase out of kilter.
  • noun In poker, a hand with no card above a nine. no pair, and no chance to make either flush or straight.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Good form, order or condition; fettle

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun in working order

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • Interesting that AHD cites an example with positive polarity.

    February 26, 2013