/pɪt͡ʃ/
OriginFrom Middle English picche, piche, pich, from Old English piċ, from Proto-West Germanic *pik, from Latin pix. Cognate with Ancient Greek πίσσα (píssa, “pitch, tar”), Latin pīnus (“pine”). More at pine. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pik (“pitch, tar”), Dutch pek (“pitch, tar”), German Low German Pick (“pitch, tar”), German Pech (“pitch, tar”), Catalan pega (“pitch”), Spanish pegar (“to stick, glue”), Franco-Provençal pouatche (“sap from a pine”) and French poix (“sap”). The adjective is probably back-formed from pitch-black, reinterpreting "pitch" as meaning "intense(ly)".
- countable, uncountableA sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; sap.
“It is hard to get this pitch off my hand.”
- countable, uncountableA dark, extremely viscous material still remaining after distilling crude oil or natural tar.
“Near-synonyms: tar, coal tar, asphalt, bitumen”
“They put pitch on the mast to protect it.”
“The barrel was sealed with pitch.”
- countable, uncountablePitchstone.
- A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand.
- The act of pitching a baseball.
“The pitch was low and inside.”
- Australia, New-Zealand, UKThe field on which cricket, soccer, rugby, gridiron or field hockey is played. (In cricket, the pitch is in the centre of the field; see cricket pitch.) (Not often used in the US or Canada, where "field" is the preferred word.)
“The teams met on the pitch.”
- A short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.
- rareThe field of battle.
““The two men of Alltraighe maintain, Two chiefs of the plain of Kerry, A clan the most active in pitch of battle, Their chiefs are O’Neide and Clan Conary.””
“Every other day they would spend half of the training hours on the battle pitch.”
“George’s cult was popular in the east because of his legendary feats on the battle pitch and because of the location of his tomb, which was a pilgrimage site.”
- An effort to sell or promote something.
“He gave me a sales pitch.”
- The distance between evenly spaced objects, e.g. the teeth of a saw or gear, the turns of a screw thread, the centres of holes, or letters in a monospace font.
“The pitch of pixels on the point scale is 72 pixels per inch.”
“The pitch of this saw is perfect for that type of wood.”
“A helical scan with a pitch of zero is equivalent to constant z-axis scanning.”
- The angle at which an object sits.
“the pitch of the roof or haystack”
- The degree to which a vehicle, especially a ship or aircraft, rotates on such an axis, tilting its bow or nose up or down.
“the pitch of an aircraft”
- A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller.
“The propeller blades' pitch went to 90° as the engine was feathered.”
- An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader.
- broadlyThe place where a busker performs, a prostitute solicits clients, or an illegal gambling game etc. is set up before the public.
“Another reason is that the prostitute who makes her pitch at Marble Arch stands a chance of being picked up by an out-of-town business man stopping at one of the hotels in the vicinity, and of being t”
- An area on a campsite intended for occupation by a single tent, caravan or similar.
- A level or degree, or (by extension), a peak or highest degree.
“He lived at a time when learning was at its highest pitch.”
“But, except the mind be disordered by disease or madness, they never can arrive at such a pitch of vivacity”
“In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of ”
- A point or peak; the extreme point of elevation or depression.
“Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down / Into this deep.”
- The most thrust-out point of a headland or cape.
“From the pitch of Cape-Fraward, to the pitch of Cape-Holland, the Streight lies in the Channel West and by North, nearest, and is distant full five Leagues;”
- obsolete, uncountableCollectively, the outermost points of some part of the body, especially the shoulders or hips.
“Such breadth of ſhoulders as might mainely beare
Olde Atlas burthen, twixt his manly pitch,
A pearle more worth, then all the world is plaſte:”
- The height a bird reaches in flight, especially a bird of prey preparing to swoop down on its prey.
- British, regionalA person's or animal's height.
“Alba the emperor was crook-backed, Epictetus lame; that great Alexander a little man of stature, Augustus Cæsar of the same pitch […].”
“So like in person, garb, and pitch,
'Twas hard t' interpret which was which”
- Prominence; importance.
“Enterprises of great pitch and moment.”
- A section of a climb or rock face; specifically, the climbing distance between belays or stances.
“The line turns a sharp right-angle to the north to circumvent the town, and then plunges straight into the 1 in 50, which lasts for nearly 20 miles with few intermissions, and some pitches of 1 in 40.”
“You lead "through" instead — your companion leads a pitch, then you join him. But instead of swapping over at the ice axe belay, you carry on in the lead, cutting or kicking steps until you are about ”
- A vertical cave passage, only negotiable by using rope or ladders.
“The entrance pitch requires 30 metres of rope.”
- That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
- A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
- The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant.
“a steep pitch in the road”
“the pitch of a roof”
- The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.
- countable, uncountableThe perceived frequency of a sound, note or electromagnetic wave.
“The pitch of middle "C" is familiar to many musicians.”
“Hertzian waves are not caused by vibrations of the ponderable matter of the brass balls, the form of which only determines the pitch.”
- countable, uncountableThe standard to which a group of musical instruments are tuned or in which a piece is performed, usually by reference to the frequency to which the musical note A above middle C is tuned.
“Are we in baroque pitch for this one?”
- countable, uncountableIn an a cappella group, the singer responsible for singing a note for the other members to tune themselves by.
“Bob, our pitch, let out a clear middle "C" and our conductor gave the signal to start.”
- To cover or smear with pitch.
““Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.””
- To darken; to blacken; to obscure.
“1704 (published), year written unknown, John Dryden, On the Death of Amyntas
Soon he found / The welkin pitch'd with sullen clouds.”
- transitiveTo throw.
“He pitched the horseshoe.”
- intransitive, transitiveTo throw (the ball) toward a batter at home plate.
“The hurler pitched a curveball.”
“He pitched high and inside.”
- intransitiveTo play baseball in the position of pitcher.
- transitiveTo throw away; discard.
“He pitched the candy wrapper.”
- transitiveTo promote, advertise, or attempt to sell.
“He pitched the idea for months with no takers.”
- transitiveTo deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind.
“At which level should I pitch my presentation?”
- transitiveTo assemble or erect (a tent). Also used figuratively.
“Pitch the tent over there.”
“Why not, when it was clearly now possible to pitch your tent well beyond whatever expert consensus considered reasonable and be lionised instead of punished [...]”
- intransitiveTo fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.
“Laban with his brethren pitched in the Mount of Gilead.”
- ambitransitiveTo move so that the front of an aircraft or boat goes alternately up and down.
“The typhoon pitched the deck of the ship.”
“The airplane pitched.”
“His bone leg steadied in that hole ; one arm elevated, and holding by a shroud ; Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight out beyond the ship's ever-pitching prow.”
- transitiveTo set at an angle, especially a downwards one; to cause to tilt.
“Driveway cross slopes along Owyhee Street in Boise reach nearly 9%, which could cause a person in a wheelchair or using another mobility device to be pitched into the street. The cross slope should be”
- transitiveTo play a short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.
“The only way to get on the green from here is to pitch the ball over the bunker.”
- intransitiveTo bounce on the playing surface.
“The ball pitched well short of the batsman.”
- intransitiveTo settle and build up, without melting.
- archaic, intransitiveTo alight; to settle; to come to rest from flight.
“the tree whereon they [the bees] pitch”
- To fix one's choice.
“Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the more easy.”
“"'Tis very unlucky that we didn't pitch on a sound one, when there were so many more of 'em!"”
- intransitiveTo plunge or fall; especially, to fall forward; to decline or slope.
“to pitch from a precipice”
“The field pitches toward the east.”
- transitiveTo set, face, or pave (an embankment or roadway) with rubble or undressed stones.
“[…]pitch the road with hard stones [rather] than to break them up for a road covering”
- transitiveTo set or fix (a price or value).
“Whose vultur thought doth pitch the price so hie,
That she will draw his lips rich treasure drie.”
- slang, transitiveTo discard (a card) for some gain.
- To attack, or position or assemble for attack.
“They pitched at the waters of Merom. These waters of Merom are generally thought to be nothing but the lake of Semechon,[…]”
““Vy don’t you pitch into her Sarah?” exclaims one half-dressed matron by way of encouragement.”
“Yet I sometimes long to pitch at him for daring to lift his eyes this way; I always feel the blood tingling at my finger’s end whenever he crosses my path.”
- To add yeast as a step while making beer
“except for the cell growth which is higher for the yeast pitched with lower vitality”
“five pitching rates were applied to lab-scale fermentations to investigate its impact on the yeast”
“Since yeast propagation is time and resource intensive, it is customary to serially re-pitch yeast”
- intransitiveTo produce a note of a given pitch.
“[…] now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.”
- transitiveTo fix or set the tone of.
“His "hello" was enough to recognize his voice by. I pitched mine low so he wouldn't know it.”
“I record voice messages in Russian, with my voice pitched to a sexy-baby timbre and a heavy American accent.”
- Very dark black; pitch-black.
“For quotations using this term, see Citations:pitch.”
- Intense, deep, dark.
“Then I got back here - difficulty again: no trolly-bus, and and black pitcher than black - and have since been conning the Beveridge Report.”
“If you lose even once, that's it: The screen goes, like, the pitchest black ever, and you're [out].”
“For some of us postpartum depression is the pitchest black we have ever known. From the dark womb we welcome new life, and our own new life, a life we haven't known, unfolds[…]”
Formspitches(plural) · pitches(present, singular, third-person) · pitching(participle, present) · pitched(participle, past) · pitched(past) · pitcher(comparative) · pitchest(superlative) · pight(obsolete, participle, past) · pight(obsolete, past)