Tilt means to lean or tip to one side. When you tilt your head to see something better, you're angling it instead of keeping it straight. A tower that tilts leans away from vertical, like the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. You might tilt a pitcher to pour milk, or tilt a pinball machine (though that's against the rules!).

The word often appears in the phrase full tilt, meaning at maximum speed or with complete effort. A runner racing full tilt toward the finish line is going as fast as possible. A factory running full tilt is operating at peak capacity.

In medieval times, knights would tilt at each other in jousting tournaments, charging on horseback with lances. Some people call a jousting match a tilt. When someone tilts at windmills, they're fighting imaginary enemies or pursuing impossible goals. This comes from a scene in the novel Don Quixote where the confused hero attacks windmills he mistakes for giants.

In modern gaming slang, going on tilt means becoming so frustrated that you start making careless mistakes, like a pinball player who tilts the machine and loses their turn. The term captures how anger can throw your judgment off balance.