pitch
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪtʃ
Forms: form: pitches
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: a good pitch in quoits
glosses: A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand.
examples: text: The pitch was low and inside.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The act of pitching a baseball.
examples: text: The teams met on the pitch.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: 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.)
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.
examples: text: “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.”
ref: 1845, Owen Connellan, Annals of Ireland: Translated from the Original Irish of the Four Masters, page 179:
text: Every other day they would spend half of the training hours on the battle pitch.
ref: 2015, SK Benton, Lives of Future-Past:
text: 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.
ref: 2018, Christopher R. Lakey, Sculptural Seeing: Relief, Optics and the Rise of Perspectives in Medieval Italy, page 84:
glosses: The field of battle.
examples: text: He gave me a sales pitch.
glosses: An effort to sell or promote something.
examples: text: The pitch of pixels on the point scale is 72 pixels per inch.
text: The pitch of this saw is perfect for that type of wood.
text: A helical scan with a pitch of zero is equivalent to constant z-axis scanning.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: the pitch of the roof or haystack
glosses: The angle at which an object sits.
examples: text: the pitch of an aircraft
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
transport
glosses: The rotation angle about the transverse axis.
The degree to which a vehicle, especially a ship or aircraft, rotates on such an axis, tilting its bow or nose up or down.
coordinate_terms: roll#English:_rot-angle
yaw#English:_rot-angle
;
heave#Noun
examples: text: The propeller blades' pitch went to 90° as the engine was feathered.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The rotation angle about the transverse axis.
A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller.
glosses: An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader.
examples: text: 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 […]
ref: 1975, Tom A. Cullen, The Prostitutes' Padre, page 94:
glosses: The place where a busker performs, a prostitute solicits clients, or an illegal gambling game etc. is set up before the public.
glosses: An area on a campsite intended for occupation by a single tent, caravan or similar.
examples: text: He lived at a time when learning was at its highest pitch.
ref: September 28, 1710, Joseph Addison, Whig-Examiner No. 2
text: But, except the mind be disordered by disease or madness, they never can arrive at such a pitch of vivacity
ref: 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, Oxford University Press, published 1973, section 11:
text: 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 eagerness.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: In this poem his 'vernacular' bluster and garish misrhymes build to a pitch of rowdy anarchy […]
ref: 2014, James Booth, Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love, page 190:
glosses: A level or degree, or (by extension), a peak or highest degree.
examples: text: Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down / Into this deep.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: A point or peak; the extreme point of elevation or depression.
examples: text: 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;
ref: 2014, John Narborough, Abel Tasman, John Wood, An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North, →ISBN:
glosses: The most thrust-out point of a headland or cape.
examples: text: 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:
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act (please specify |act=I or II), scene i:
glosses: Collectively, the outermost points of some part of the body, especially the shoulders or hips.
glosses: The height a bird reaches in flight, especially a bird of prey preparing to swoop down on its prey.
examples: text: Alba the emperor was crook-backed, Epictetus lame; that great Alexander a little man of stature, Augustus Cæsar of the same pitch […].
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 2:
text: So like in person, garb, and pitch,
'Twas hard t' interpret which was which
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
glosses: A person's or animal's height.
examples: text: Enterprises of great pitch and moment.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
glosses: Prominence; importance.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 265:
text: 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 twenty feet above.
ref: 1967, Anthony Greenbank, Instructions in Mountaineering, page 84:
topics: climbing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A section of a climb or rock face; specifically, the climbing distance between belays or stances.
examples: text: The entrance pitch requires 30 metres of rope.
topics: caving
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: A vertical cave passage, only negotiable by using rope or ladders.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
glosses: A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
examples: text: a steep pitch in the road
text: the pitch of a roof
glosses: The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant.
topics: business
mining
glosses: The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.
Hyponyms: football pitch
Derived terms: auction pitch
brushback pitch
ceremonial first pitch
elevator pitch
fast-pitch
fastpitch
fever pitch
hit-by-pitch
horizontal pitch
jam pitch
mispitch
monopitch
multipitch
payoff pitch
pitch accent
pitch count
pitch deck
pitch-faced
pitch game
pitch invader
pitch invasion
pitch mark
pitchmeter
pitchometer
queer someone's pitch
quick pitch
roll the pitch
sales pitch
soccer pitch
submarine pitch
take a pitch
time of pitch
tough-pitch
wild pitch