out of kilter
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Out of harmony or balance.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
And if you have an increase in, in one year and the situation then throws it all out of kilter.
It only takes a small slippage for government revenue and spending forecasts to be thrown out of kilter.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “out of kilter” mean?
Out of harmony or balance.
Is “out of kilter” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.