▪ I. lilting, vbl. n.
(ˈlɪltɪŋ)
[f. lilt v. + -ing1.]
The action of lilt v.; cheerful or merry singing.
| 1719 D'Urfey Pills VI. 350 Let's awa' to the Wedding, For there will be Lilting there. c 1750 Miss Eliot Song, Flowers of Forest i, I've heard the lilting at our yowe⁓milking, Lasses a lilting before the dawn of day. |
Hence † lilting-horn, a kind of trumpet. Obs.
| c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 133 (Fairfax MS.) And many flowte and liltyng horne [v.rr. lytelyng, lyltyng, litelynge]. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 593/21 Lituus, a lyltynghorn [printed lylkynghorn]. |
▪ II. ˈlilting, ppl. a.
[f. lilt v. + -ing2.]
Cheerfully singing; (of song, metre, etc.) characterized by a rhythmical ‘swing’ or cadence. Also of one's gait: (sense 3 of vb.).
| 1800 S. T. Coleridge Death Wallenst. Transl. Pref., This is written..in the same lilting metre (if that expression may be permitted) with the second Eclogue of Spencer's Shepherd's Calendar. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VI. liv. 409 He was a proficient in the lilting metre..of his tutor. 1865 Daily Tel. 8 Nov. 4/5 The lilting burden of ‘Lero, lero, lillibullero, lero, lero, bullen-a-la’. 1900 J. G. Frazer Pausanias etc. 380 The flute broke into a light lilting air. 1903 Longman's Mag. Jan. 271 Swinging down the street with an easy lilting stride..marched two Englishmen, soldiers both. 1965 E. Bhavnani Dance in India xvi. 208 In a lilting change of movements, boys and girls hold hands or link arms and dance round and round in a circle. |
Hence ˈliltingness.
| 1884 J. Burroughs Birds & Poets 121 The bobolink..has..on the high grass lands..quite a different strain..running off with more sparkle and liltingness. |