Full Tilt
Meaning
At top speed; with maximum energy.
Origin
When we describe something as ’tilted’ we usually mean ‘inclined at an angle’ and it could be said to be at ‘full tilt’ when it was about to topple over. The expression ‘full tilt’ is most often heard these days in regard to the Full Tilt poker game. Of course, that isn’t the origin of the term, although the source is related to another type of poker – the lance used in medieval jousting.
Tilt derives from the Old English word tealt or tylte, meaning to totter unsteadily. It isn’t surprising that tilting was the early name for jousting, as the sport involves two knights on horseback charging at each other and trying to topple their opponent off his horse. This is the same meaning of tilt as in the eponymous hero’s ’tilting at windmills’ in Cervantes’ Don Quixote.
