lilt
/lɪlt/
lilt verb: to do something rhythmically, with animation and quickness, usually of music.
Verb
lilt (third-person singular simple present lilts, present participle lilting, simple past and past participle lilted)
- To do something rhythmically, with animation and quickness, usually of music.
- Whether the bird flit here or there,
O'er table lilt , or perch on chaira. 1851, William Wordsworth, “The Redbreast”, in Henry [Hope] Reed, editor, The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hayes & Zell, […], published 1860, →OCLC
- Whether the bird flit here or there,
- To sing cheerfully, especially in Gaelic.
- To utter with spirit, animation, or gaiety; to sing with spirit and liveliness.
- A classic lecture, rich in sentiment, / With scraps of thunderous epic lilted out / By violet-hooded doctors.1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
Noun
lilt (plural lilts)
- An animated, brisk motion; a spirited rhythm; sprightliness.
- A lively song or dance; a cheerful tune.
- He was going away quite in despair, when a little old man, who was looking on with marks of displeasure in his face, came up to him, and telling him he was his friend, and his father's friend, bade him go into the ring and call for a lilt.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 368
- A cheerful or melodious accent or style in speaking.
- The two works have the attractive lilt of Middle English, with all the remedies for bites of serpents and cures for eye troubles of the day.1978, Keith Vincent Smith, The Illustrated Earth Garden Herbal, Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia, page 23, column 2
- Though Bane’s sing-song voice gives his pronouncements a funny lilt, he doesn’t have any of the Joker’s deranged wit, and Nolan isn’t interested in undercutting his seriousness for the sake of a breezier entertainment.July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club, The Dark Knight Rises (review)
lilt meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
lilt in Tamil
- சந்தப்பாடல், இன்னிசைப் பாட்டு, வண்ணப்பாட்டு, சந்தம், மெட்டு, வண்ணம்
lilt in Malayalam
- cadence, rise and fall, inflection
- ഉല്ലാസപ്പാട്ട്, ഉല്ലാസരാഗം, ലഘുതരവും ഊർജ്ജസ്വലവുമായ താളം, ഉല്ലാസവിഹാരം, അഹ്ലാദകരമായ ഗാനം, മുറിപ്പാട്ട്
lilt in Kannada
- ಇಂಪಾದ ಹಾಡು
Examples of lilt in a sentence
- “No need fer that at all, boyo!” he said, in a pleasant Welsh borders lilt.
- The formel's voice lilted, drifting in and out of his thoughts."
- She looked all in, no doubt of that, but the lilt was there.
Forms of lilt
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | lilts |
| present participle | lilting |
| past participle | lilted |
| past | lilted |
| Noun | |
| plural | lilts |
Origin of lilt
From Middle English lilten, lulten.
Words formed from lilt
Words that rhyme with lilt
7 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about lilt
- What does lilt mean?
- Lilt means to do something rhythmically, with animation and quickness, usually of music.
- What is lilt in Tamil?
- Lilt in Tamil is சந்தப்பாடல், இன்னிசைப் பாட்டு, வண்ணப்பாட்டு. See Lilt meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is lilt?
- Lilt can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce lilt?
- Lilt is pronounced /lɪlt/.
- What is the past tense of lilt?
- The past tense of lilt is lilted.
Words near lilt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lilt (page history and authors); lilt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lilt (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); lilt (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lilt.wav.
Cite this entry: “lilt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lilt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.