Hil·ton (h?l?t?n), Conrad Nicholson 1887-1979. American hotel-chain organizer who acquired hotels in many American cities and in 1946 founded the Hilton Hotel Corporation.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.