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pitch

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pitch¹

  • /pɪt͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪtʃ

Where it comes from

From 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)".

noun pitches

  1. countable, uncountable A sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; tree sap. It is hard to get this pitch off my hand.
  2. countable, uncountable Anything similar to or derived from tree sap: resin; rosin.
  3. countable, uncountable A dark, extremely viscous material still remaining after distilling crude oil or natural tar. Near-synonyms: tar, coal tar, asphalt, bitumen
  4. countable, uncountable Pitchstone.

verb pitches · pitching · pitched

  1. 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.”
  2. 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.

adjective pitcher · pitchest

  1. Very dark black; pitch-black. For quotations using this term, see Citations:pitch.
  2. Intense, deep, dark. Then I got back here - difficulty again: no trolly-bus, and black pitcher than black - and have since been conning the Beveridge Report.

pitch²

  • /pɪt͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪtʃ

Where it comes from

From Middle English picchen, pycchen (“to thrust in, fasten, settle”), from Old English *piċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *pikkijan, a variant of Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn (“to pick, peck”), whence Middle English pikken, picken (“to pick, pierce”), modern English pick.

noun pitches

  1. countable, uncountable A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. a good pitch in quoits
  2. countable, uncountable The act of pitching a baseball. The pitch was low and inside.
  3. Australia, New Zealand, UK, countable, uncountable The 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.
  4. countable, uncountable A short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.
  5. countable, rare, uncountable The 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.”
  6. countable, uncountable An effort to sell or promote something. He gave me a sales pitch.
  7. countable, uncountable 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.
  8. countable, uncountable The angle at which an object sits. the pitch of the roof or haystack
  9. countable, uncountable 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
  10. countable, uncountable A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller. The propeller blades' pitch went to 90° as the engine was feathered.
  11. countable, uncountable An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader.
  12. broadly, countable, uncountable The 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 treated to a steak dinner […]
  13. countable, uncountable An area on a campsite intended for occupation by a single tent, caravan or similar.
  14. countable, uncountable A level or degree, or (by extension), a peak or highest degree. He lived at a time when learning was at its highest pitch.
  15. countable, uncountable A point or peak; the extreme point of elevation or depression. Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down / Into this deep.
  16. countable, uncountable 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;
  17. obsolete, uncountable Collectively, 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:
  18. countable, uncountable The height a bird reaches in flight, especially a bird of prey preparing to swoop down on its prey.
  19. UK, countable, regional, uncountable A 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 […].
  20. countable, uncountable Prominence; importance. Enterprises of great pitch and moment.
  21. countable, uncountable 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.
  22. countable, uncountable A vertical cave passage, only negotiable by using rope or ladders. The entrance pitch requires 30 metres of rope.
  23. countable, uncountable That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
  24. countable, uncountable A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
  25. countable, uncountable 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
  26. countable, uncountable The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.
  27. uncountable An American trick-taking card game.

verb pitches · pitching · pitched · pight

  1. transitive To throw. He pitched the horseshoe.
  2. intransitive, transitive To throw (the ball) toward a batter at home plate. The hurler pitched a curveball.
  3. intransitive To play baseball in the position of pitcher. Bob pitches today.
  4. transitive To throw away; discard. He pitched the candy wrapper.
  5. transitive To promote, advertise, or attempt to sell. He pitched the idea for months with no takers.
  6. transitive To deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind. At which level should I pitch my presentation?
  7. transitive To assemble or erect (a tent). Also used figuratively. Pitch the tent over there.
  8. intransitive To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp. Laban with his brethren pitched in the Mount of Gilead.
  9. ambitransitive To move so that the front of an aircraft or boat goes alternately up and down. The typhoon pitched the deck of the ship.
  10. transitive To 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 no greater than 2% in order to prevent this.
  11. transitive To 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.
  12. intransitive To bounce on the playing surface. The ball pitched well short of the batsman.
  13. intransitive To settle and build up, without melting.
  14. archaic, intransitive To alight; to settle; to come to rest from flight. the tree whereon they [the bees] pitch
  15. To fix one's choice. Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the more easy.
  16. intransitive To plunge or fall; especially, to fall forward; to decline or slope. to pitch from a precipice
  17. transitive To 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
  18. transitive To 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.
  19. slang, transitive To discard (a card) for some gain.
  20. 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,[…]
  21. To add yeast as a step while making beer except for the cell growth which is higher for the yeast pitched with lower vitality

pitch³

  • /pɪt͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪtʃ

Where it comes from

Unknown. Perhaps from the above sense of "inclination", "level", or "degree", or influenced by it.

noun pitches

  1. countable, uncountable The perceived frequency of a sound, note or electromagnetic wave. The pitch of middle "C" is familiar to many musicians.
  2. countable, uncountable The 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?
  3. countable, uncountable In 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.

verb pitches · pitching · pitched

  1. intransitive To produce a note of a given pitch. […] now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.
  2. transitive To 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.

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