LILT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Lilt

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noun

Lilt n.

Animated, brisk motion; spirited rhythm; sprightliness. "The movement, the lilt, and the subtle charm of the verse."

A lively song or dance; a cheerful tune. "The housewife went about her work, or spun at her wheel, with a lilt upon her lips."

verb

Lilt v. t. To utter with spirit, animation, or gayety; to sing with spirit and liveliness. "A classic lecture, rich in sentiment, With scraps of thundrous epic lilted out By violet-hooded doctors."

Lilt v. i.

To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. (Prov. Eng.)

To sing cheerfully. (Scot.)

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Etymology of 'Lilt'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lilt" Quotes from Famous Books

... hymn, chant, lay, ditty, ballad, onody, chansonnette, lyric, lilt, lied, paean, cantata, aria, sonnet, strain, ...

— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... the kitchen to say that he must have some of the good old rousing Scotch songs they used to sing when he was home. So Mary brought out the old tartan-covered song-book and they sang it through, from the dreamy wail of "Ye Banks and Braes" to the rollicking lilt ...

— In Orchard Glen • Marian Keith

... he sat on the bench under the lilac bush, a broad bar of golden light shone down upon the gay cupid and the sleeping flowers, and from the open window came the lilt of girlish laughter and the rippling strain of the "Spring Song," as Judy's fingers touched the keys of the ...

— Judy • Temple Bailey

... experienced the like. As we turn over the leaves, we may find ourselves in sympathy with some one or other of these staid joys and smiling sorrows. If we do we shall be strangely pleased, for there is a genuine pathos in these simple words, and the lines go with a lilt, and sing themselves ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 3 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... May for their own sake; some of them may have a human voice; some may have that magic which transforms a wooden box into a song-bird, and what we jeeringly call a fiddle into what we mention with respect as a violin. From that grinding lilt, with which the blind man, seeking pence, accompanies the beat of paddle wheels across the ferry, there is surely a difference rather of kind than of degree to that unearthly voice of singing that bewails and praises the destiny of man at the touch of the ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

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