off kilter
Slightly out of alignment
Off kilter means out of balance, alignment, or proper position.
Something physically off kilter leans or tilts when it shouldn't: The picture frame hung off kilter.
The phrase extends to anything askew or not quite right—plans, moods, relationships: The whole day felt off kilter after that morning phone call.
Also spelled off-kilter.
Kilter rarely appears outside this phrase.
- askewTilted from true
- crookedBent or dishonest
- lopsidedUnequally balanced
- tiltedAngled from vertical
- unbalancedLacking equilibrium or stability
wobbly · skewed · awry · cockeyed · unsteady · slanted · wonky · dizzy · disoriented · all over the place · unsettled · strange · not quite right · wrong · odd · peculiar · unhinged · teetering
- brokenbroken, busted, broken down, out of order, not working