释义 |
▪ I. lilt, n.|lɪlt| [app. f. lilt v.] 1. A song or tune, esp. one of a cheerful or merry character. Chiefly Sc.
1728Ramsay Ep. to W. Starrat 26 The blythest lilts that e'er my lugs heard sung. 17..Jacobite Relics (1821) II. 193 Is't some words ye've learnt by rote, Or a lilt o' dool and sorrow? 1842S. Lover Handy Andy v. 52 To the tune of a well known rollicking Irish lilt. 1850Kingsley Alt. Locke xli. (1874) 308 Hark to the grand lilt of the ‘Good Time Coming!’ 1874Burnand My time xvi. 133 A peasant..suddenly takes up a pipe..and commences to play a lilt. 2. The rhythmical cadence or ‘swing’ of a tune or of verse. Chiefly literary.
1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 253 It proceeds as by a chant... One reads along naturally with a sort of lilt. 1869Farrar Fam. Speech iii. (1873) 91 The sonorous lilt of the Greek Epic verse contrasts..with the grave unbending stateliness of the Hebrew. 1882Stevenson Fam. Stud. 289 The lines go with a lilt, and sing themselves to music of their own. fig.1870Lowell Study Wind. 336 This faculty of hitting the precise lilt of thought is a rare gift. 1879Trollope Thackeray 75 An eagerness of description, a lilt, if I may so call it, in the progress of the narrative. 3. A springing action; a light, springing step.
1869A. C. Gibson Folk-sp. Cumberld. 37 Wid a lilt iv her step an' a glent iv her e'e. 1884Daily News 23 Sept. 6/1 A sort of ‘lilt’ in the gait, which is by no means graceful. 4. (See quot.) ? Obs. Cf. lill n.1
1776D. Herd Coll. Songs II. 258 Gloss., Lilts, the holes of a wind instrument of musick; hence Lilt up a spring. c1832[see lill n.1 quot. 1824]. 5. Comb., as lilt-like adj.
1866Daily Tel. 10 Mar. 246/3 Many of the songs have that lilt-like quality which almost makes them sing themselves. ▪ II. lilt, v. Sc., north. dial., and literary.|lɪlt| Also 4 lulte, 6 lylt. [ME. lulte (ü), of obscure origin; perh. cogn. w. Du., LG. lul, pipe (cf. lilt-pipe); Skeat compares Norw. lilla to sing.] 1. trans. †a. To sound (an alarum); to lift up (the voice). Obs. b. To sing cheerfully or merrily. Also, to strike up (a song); to ‘tune up’ (the pipes). Also with out.
13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 1207 Loude alarom vpon launde lulted was þenne. 1513Douglas æneis vii. ix. 88 In ane bowand horne.. A feindlych hellis voce scho lyltis schyll [L. Tartaream intendit vocem]. 17..Ramsay Ep. Mr. Gay, Lilt up your pipes, and rise aboon Your Trivia and your moorland tune. 1722― Three Bonnets iv. 192 Lilt up a sang. 1725― Gent. Sheph. ii. iv, Rosie lilts sweetly the ‘Milking the ewes’. Ibid. iv. i, Weel liltet, Bauldy, that's a dainty sang. Ibid. v. iii, What shepherd's whistle winna lilt the spring? 1847E. Brontë Wuthering Heights xxi. 182 She tripped merrily on, lilting a tune to supply the lack of conversation. 1878Miss Tytler Scotch Firs 136 An old song lilted in a clear shrill voice. 1883G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads & Rivers vi. (1884) 47 Reed-wrens lilting some sweet fragment of song. 1916A. Bennett Lion's Share xxv. 191 Musa lilted out the delicate, gay phrases of Debussy. 2. intr. To sing cheerfully or merrily; to sing with a lilt or merry ‘swing’.
1786Burns Ordination iii, Mak haste an' turn king David owre, An' lilt wi' holy clangor. 1816Scott Antiq. xxii, Jenny, whose shrill voice I have heard this half hour lilting in the Tartarean regions of the kitchen. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy xviii, Murphy, who presided in the cart full of fiddlers like a leader in an orchestra..shouted ‘Now..rasp and lilt away, boys!’ 1901Blackw. Mag. July 24/1 A voice came lilting up the den very sweetly. 3. north. dial. ‘To move with a lively action’ (Dickinson & Prevost Cumbld. Gloss. 1899).
1834Wordsw. Redbreast 70 Whether the bird flit here or there, O'er table lilt, or perch on chair. 1847Halliwell, Lilt, to jerk or spring; to do anything cleverly or quickly. North. 1901Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 79 He lilted a little on his feet when he was pleased. Ibid. 80 He went to England, and he became a young man, and back he came, lilting a little in his walk. 4. to lilt it out (Sc.): to toss off one's liquor.
1721Ramsay Up in Air iv, Tilt it, lads, and lilt it out. |