Definitions

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

  • adjective Stiffly or artificially formal; stiff.
  • adjective Architecture Having some vertical length between the impost and the beginning of the curve. Used of an arch.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Elevated, as if on stilts; hence, pompous; inflated; formal; stiff and bombastic: said especially of language: as, a stilted mode of expression; a stilted style.

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

  • adjective Elevated as if on stilts; hence, pompous; bombastic
  • adjective (Arch.) an arch in which the springing line is some distance above the impost, the space between being occupied by a vertical member, molded or ornamented, as a continuation of the archivolt, intrados, etc.

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

  • adjective stiff and artificially formal
  • adjective pompous
  • adjective of a building Supported by stilts.

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

  • adjective artificially formal

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • But there's a certain ... stilted character to them that I came to realize was the emergent property of all those swirling styles and ideas, cross-pollinating and recombining outside of the Anglo Bubble.

    SFWA European Hall of Fame: a chance to read sf from outside of the Anglo Bubble - Boing Boing 2008

  • If you look at their NASA Message Construct all you get are partial, generic ideas contained in stilted sentences - including what to say in a proverbial "Elevator Speech" with someone (I am guessing here) who wants to know what NASA does.

    The Consequences of Foot-in-Mouth - NASA Watch 2007

  • If you look at their NASA Message Construct all you get are partial, generic ideas contained in stilted sentences - including what to say in a proverbial "Elevator Speech" with someone (I am guessing here) who wants to know what NASA does.

    NASA Watch: June 2007 Archives 2007

  • I shall type in stilted sentences, where humorous.

    September 5th, 2005 moriarty6 2005

  • Perhaps the treatment of reformers like Mirdamadi and Abdi explains why some of the gerogan-girha tend to speak in stilted euphemisms, even when they are discussing events now a quarter of a century old.

    Among the Hostage-Takers 2004

  • Perhaps the treatment of reformers like Mirdamadi and Abdi explains why some of the gerogan-girha tend to speak in stilted euphemisms, even when they are discussing events now a quarter of a century old.

    Among the Hostage-Takers 2004

  • Perhaps the treatment of reformers like Mirdamadi and Abdi explains why some of the gerogan-girha tend to speak in stilted euphemisms, even when they are discussing events now a quarter of a century old.

    Among the Hostage-Takers 2004

  • In such cases, the gait is stilted, that is, there is incomplete advancement of both members and, of course, the period of weight bearing is correspondingly shortened; hence the short strides.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • Where the centre is at a point above the diameter, it is called a stilted arch.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913

  • Too often, the record sounds forced and stilted, which is unfortunate, since jazz/hip-hop fusion need a musician of Redman's caliber to make it credible in the jazz world.

    AvaxHome RSS: SyraNNo 2010

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