stilted

Adjective

stilted (comparative more stilted, superlative most stilted)

1. Making use of or possessing a stilt or stilts, or things resembling stilts; raised on stilts.
   • And laugh at this fantaſtic Mummery, / This antic Prelude of groteſque Events, / Where Dwarfs are often ſtilted, and betray / A Littleneſs of ſoul by Worlds o'er-run, / And Nations laid in blood.1744, [Edward Young], “Night the Sixth. The Infidel Reclaim’d. In Two Parts. Containing, the Nature, Proof, and Importance of Immortality. Part the First. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts...
   • The state of husbandry is very far behind. The plough generally used is the single stilted one. In using this kind of plough, the ploughman bends towards the soil, and well merits the title of curvus arator, bestowed by Virgil on the Italian ploughman. [...] The two-stilted plough is beginning to...1806, “ORKNEY ISLANDS”, in Gazetteer of Scotland; Containing a Particular Description of the Counties, Parishes, Islands, Cities, Towns, Villages, Lakes, Rivers, Mountains, Vallies, &c. in that...

   Antonyms:

   unstilted

2. (figuratively) Elevated or raised in a contrived or unnatural way; stiff and artificially formal or pompous; also, depending on redundant, unnecessary elements.
   • He gave a stilted bow and left.
   • Untutored intellects are pleased with its frothy sentiment and its florid language, just as young and uneducated eyes are delighted with the gaudy hues of coloured prints in aquatinta. But though the tinsel of this stilted prose greatly contributed to [Salomon] Gessner's success in this and in...1814 April, “Art. VI. The World before the Flood, a Poem, in Ten Cantos; with Other Occasional Pieces; by James Montgomery, […] 8vo. pp. 304. London; Longman and Co. 1813. [book review]”, in [William...

   Synonyms:

   awkward, laboured, affected, theatrical, effete, fey, recherché, hoity-toity, overrefined, pansified

   Antonyms:

   humble, natural, unstilted

3. Of a building or architectural feature such as an arch or vault: supported by stilts (“supporting pillars or posts”); also (generally) having the main part raised above the usual level by some structure.
   • In Winchester Cathedral and Romsey Abbey Church, we have examples of what is called the stilted or horse-shoe arch, which is where the curvature of the arch does not spring immediately from the capitals or imposts of the piers, but the extreme points of the semicircle are continued straight down...1845, Matthew Holbeche Bloxam, “Of the Anglo-Norman Style”, in The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture. With an Explanation of Technical Terms, and a Centenary of Ancient Terms, 7th...
   • The stilted arch was a good and much used expedient in ancient and modern times.1920, G[eorg Gottlob] Ungewitter, K. Mohrmann, “Vaults”, in N[athan] Clifford Ricker, transl., Manual of Gothic Construction … Rewritten by K. Mohrmann … Leipzig 1890, 3rd edition, Urbana, Ill....

   Antonyms:

   unstilted