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 , butkilter 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 orcondition ;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
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Examples
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My day today is off kilter from the norm, but still busy.
The Ordinary Day 2008
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I was off-kilter from the start - my alarm didn't go off so I slept in.
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I was off-kilter from the start - my alarm didn't go off so I slept in.
September 2005 2005
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As for right now, Eastern Standard Time has left us — migrating over one time zone arena. grin Until our new Daylight Savings Times overlords allow things to go back to kilter, that is.
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She uses the word kilter and not in the out-of sense.
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these would never fly - and, the strut landing gear on the middle body - the orientation is askew, off "kilter" - so would have problems in landing.
Lovell, Photos, and Maquettes James Gurney 2010
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Oddly, Ms. McDonagh simply tries to confuse the issues and the meanings of unavoidable boundaries by reasserting her own specialized lexicon of plausible sounding, but profoundly off-kilter, meanings.
Thinking Anglicans 2008
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They know how everything is connected in circles, and how things get way out of kilter if you pull one person out of a system and elevate or lower them to a different plane than the others.
The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010
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Through it all, Chelsea never lets anyone off the hook, even herself, as she delivers page after page of irrevent humor, biting wit, and deliciously off-kilter entertainment.
WEEKLY BOOK RELEASES FOR MARCH 7TH | Open Society Book Club Discussions and Reviews 2010
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Through it all, Chelsea never lets anyone off the hook, even herself, as she delivers page after page of irrevent humor, biting wit, and deliciously off-kilter entertainment.
WEEKLY BOOK RELEASES FOR MARCH 7TH | Open Society Book Club Discussions and Reviews 2010
bilby commented on the word kilter
Interesting that AHD cites an example with positive polarity.
February 26, 2013