pitch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪtʃ
Forms: form: pitches
form: pitching
form: pitched
form: pitched
form: pight
form: pight
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: He pitched the horseshoe.
synonyms: word: fling
word: hurl
word: bung
word: cast
word: chuck
word: chunk
word: cook
word: dash
word: dump
word: feck
word: fling
word: jerk
word: heave
word: hield
word: hoy
word: huck
word: hurl
word: hurtle
word: launch
word: lob
word: peck
word: peg
word: pick
word: pitch
word: precipitate
word: project
word: quoit
word: shy
word: slight
word: skew
word: sling
word: thrill
word: throw
word: toss
word: traject
word: warp
word: whang
word: whip
word: whop
word: wing
glosses: To throw.
examples: text: The hurler pitched a curveball.
text: He pitched high and inside.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To throw (the ball) toward a batter at home plate.
examples: text: Bob pitches today.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To play baseball in the position of pitcher.
examples: text: He pitched the candy wrapper.
synonyms: word: cast aside
word: throw away
word: junk
word: 86
word: bin
word: can
word: cast aside
word: cast off
word: cast away
word: chuck
word: chuck away
word: chuck out
word: discard
word: dispose of
word: ditch
word: dump
word: get rid of
word: jettison
word: pitch
word: scrap
word: shift
word: throw aside
word: throw away
word: throw out
word: toss
word: trash
glosses: To throw away; discard.
examples: text: He pitched the idea for months with no takers.
glosses: To promote, advertise, or attempt to sell.
examples: text: At which level should I pitch my presentation?
glosses: To deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind.
examples: text: Pitch the tent over there.
text: 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 [...]
ref: 2024 April 16, Gaby Hinsliff, “Liz Truss has kindly offered to ‘save the west’. But who will save her from her delusions?”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To assemble or erect (a tent). Also used figuratively.
examples: text: Laban with his brethren pitched in the Mount of Gilead.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:25:
glosses: To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.
examples: text: The typhoon pitched the deck of the ship.
text: The airplane pitched.
text: 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.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 28, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 136:
text: Half a dozen deserted boats pitched aimlessly upon the confusion of the waves.
ref: 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 103:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
transport
glosses: To move so that the front of an aircraft or boat goes alternatively up and down.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2020 August 4, Don Kostelec, ““Fully implement ADA.” Do agencies know what that means?”, in Kostelec Planning:
glosses: To set at an angle, especially a downwards one; to cause to tilt.
examples: text: The only way to get on the green from here is to pitch the ball over the bunker.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To play a short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.
examples: text: The ball pitched well short of the batsman.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To bounce on the playing surface.
qualifier: Bristol
glosses: To settle and build up, without melting.
raw_tags: of snow
examples: text: the tree whereon they [the bees] pitch
ref: 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
glosses: To alight; to settle; to come to rest from flight.
examples: text: Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the more easy.
ref: a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Precepts of Christianity not grievous:
text: "'Tis very unlucky that we didn't pitch on a sound one, when there were so many more of 'em!"
ref: 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), page 53:
qualifier: with on or upon
glosses: To fix one's choice.
examples: text: to pitch from a precipice
text: The field pitches toward the east.
glosses: To plunge or fall; especially, to fall forward; to decline or slope.
examples: text: […]pitch the road with hard stones [rather] than to break them up for a road covering
ref: 1838, Thomas Hughes, The Practice of Making & Repairing Roads:
glosses: To set, face, or pave (an embankment or roadway) with rubble or undressed stones.
examples: text: Whose vultur thought doth pitch the price so hie,
That she will draw his lips rich treasure drie.
ref: 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To set or fix (a price or value).
topics: card-games
games
glosses: To discard (a card) for some gain.
examples: text: They pitched at the waters of Merom. These waters of Merom are generally thought to be nothing but the lake of Semechon,[…]
ref: 1801, Thomas Coke, chapter 11, in A Commentary on the Holy Bible: Commentary on the Old Teatament, Joshua, page 51, verse 5:
text: “Vy don’t you pitch into her Sarah?” exclaims one half-dressed matron by way of encouragement.
ref: 1866, Charles Dickens, Works: Sketches by Boz: Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People with Illustrations by George Cruikshank, page 65:
text: 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.
ref: 1868, Rock Ruin; or the Daughter of the Island, page 23:
text: On the seventh day after the two armies were pitched against each other in the plain before Aphek the battle was joined, the Syrians were routed, and a hundred thousand of their foot-men were slain in one day.
ref: 1886, James Osgood Andrew Clark, Elijah Vindicated: Or The Answer by Fire, page 378:
text: The Philistines, hearing that Israel were assembled at Mizpeh, raised an army and pitched against them.
ref: 1892, Louis Barnett Abrahams, A Manual of Scripture History for Use in Jewish Schools and Families, page 72:
text: He would pitch into her, and pitch into himself, and then he would dwell on her good qualities, […]
ref: 2015, William Dean Howells, Delphi Complete Works of William Dean Howells:
text: If Spain was to fight in the Americas, for example, the Royal Navy could pitch against it over 300 ships in the seventies (Morris 2011:13-32), deployed in various parts of the world.
ref: 2016, A. González Enciso, War, Power and the Economy: Mercantilism and state formation in 18th-century Europe, page 144:
glosses: To attack, or position or assemble for attack.
examples: text: except for the cell growth which is higher for the yeast pitched with lower vitality
ref: 2004 September 1, L. F. Guido, P. G. Rodrigues, J. A. Rodrigues, C. R. Gonçalves, A. A. Barros, “The impact of the physiological condition of the pitching yeast on beer flavour stability: an industrial approach”, in Food Chemistry, volume 87, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 187–193:
text: five pitching rates were applied to lab-scale fermentations to investigate its impact on the yeast
ref: 2009 February 1, P. J. Verbelen, T. M. L. Dekoninck, S. M. G. Saerens, S. E. Van Mulders, J. M. Thevelein, “Impact of pitching rate on yeast fermentation performance and beer flavour”, in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, volume 82, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 155–167:
text: Since yeast propagation is time and resource intensive, it is customary to serially re-pitch yeast
ref: 2019 August 1, Girmay Kalayu, “Serial re-pitching: its effect on yeast physiology, fermentation performance, and product quality”, in Annals of Microbiology, volume 69, number 8, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 787–796:
topics: beverages
brewing
business
food
lifestyle
manufacturing
glosses: To add yeast as a step while making beer
Derived terms: fly-pitch
mispitch
nonpitching
outpitch
pitch a fit
pitch-a-fit
pitch and pay
pitch and putt
pitch and toss
pitch around
pitch a tantrum
pitch a tent
pitch camp
pitched market
pitcher
pitch-farthing
pitchfork
pitch good money after bad
pitch in
pitch into
pitch on
pitch out
pitchpenny
pitch-pot
pitch the nob
pitch up
pitch upon
pitch woo