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pitch

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English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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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

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pitch (countable and uncountable, plural pitches)

  1. A sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; sap.
    It is hard to get this pitch off my hand.
  2. A dark, extremely viscous material still remaining after distilling crude oil and tar.
    They put pitch on the mast to protect it.
    The barrel was sealed with pitch.
    It was pitch black because there was no moon.
  3. (geology) Pitchstone.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → Galician: piche
  • → Portuguese: piche
Translations
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See also
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Verb

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pitch (third-person singular simple present pitches, present participle pitching, simple past and past participle pitched)

  1. To cover or smear 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

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pitch (comparative pitcher, superlative pitchest)

  1. Very dark black; pitch-black.
  2. (of a black color) Intense, deep, dark.
    • 2008 July 15, Edward Morgan Forster, Christopher Isherwood, Letters Between Forster and Isherwood on Homosexuality and Literature, Palgrave MacMillan:
      Then I got back here - difficulty again: no trolly-bus, and and black pitcher than black - and have since been conning the Beveridge Report.
    • 2013 February 26, Dale E. Basye, Snivel: The Fifth Circle of Heck, Yearling, →ISBN, page 162:
      If you lose even once, that's it: The screen goes, like, the pitchest black ever, and you're [out].
    • 2016 August 30, Mandy Arioto, Starry-Eyed: Seeing Grace in the Unfolding Constellation of Life and Motherhood, Zondervan, →ISBN, page 19:
      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 […]
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pitchest-black.

Etymology 2

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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

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pitch (plural pitches)

  1. A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand.
    a good pitch in quoits
  3. (baseball) The act of pitching a baseball.
    The pitch was low and inside.
  4. (sports, UK, Australia, New Zealand) 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.
  5. (golf) A short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.
  6. (rare) The field of battle.
    • 1845, Owen Connellan, Annals of Ireland: Translated from the Original Irish of the Four Masters‎[1], page 179:
      “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.”
    • 2015, SK Benton, Lives of Future-Past‎[2]:
      Every other day they would spend half of the training hours on the battle pitch.
    • 2018, Christopher R. Lakey, Sculptural Seeing: Relief, Optics and the Rise of Perspectives in Medieval Italy‎[3], page 84:
      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.
  7. An effort to sell or promote something.
    He gave me a sales pitch.
  8. 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.
  9. The angle at which an object sits.
    the pitch of the roof or haystack
  11. The rotation angle about the transverse axis.
    1. (nautical, aviation) 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, yaw; heave
      the pitch of an aircraft
    2. (aviation) A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller.
      The propeller blades' pitch went to 90° as the engine was feathered.
  12. An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader.
  13. (by extension) The place where a busker performs, a prostitute solicits clients, or an illegal gambling game etc. is set up before the public.
    • 1975, Tom A. Cullen, The Prostitutes' Padre, page 94:
      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 […]
  14. An area on a campsite intended for occupation by a single tent, caravan or similar.
  15. A level or degree, or (by extension), a peak or highest degree.
  16. A point or peak; the extreme point of elevation or depression.
    • 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:
      Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down / Into this deep.
  17. The most thrust-out point of a headland or cape.
    • 2014, John Narborough, Abel Tasman, John Wood, An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North, →ISBN:
      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;
  18. (obsolete, uncountable) Collectively, the outermost points of some part of the body, especially the shoulders or hips.
  19. The height a bird reaches in flight, especially a bird of prey preparing to swoop down on its prey.
  20. (now British, regional) A person's or animal's height.
  21. Prominence; importance.
  22. (climbing) A section of a climb or rock face; specifically, the climbing distance between belays or stances.
    • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 265:
      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.
    • 1967, Anthony Greenbank, Instructions in Mountaineering, page 84:
      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.
  23. (caving) A vertical cave passage, only negotiable by using rope or ladders.
    The entrance pitch requires 30 metres of rope.
  24. (cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
  25. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
  26. 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
  27. (mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.
Hyponyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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pitch (third-person singular simple present pitches, present participle pitching, simple past and past participle pitched or (obsolete) pight)

  2. (transitive) To throw.
    Synonyms: fling, hurl; see also Thesaurus:throw
    He pitched the horseshoe.
  4. (transitive or intransitive, baseball) To throw (the ball) toward a batter at home plate.
    The hurler pitched a curveball.
    He pitched high and inside.
  5. (intransitive, baseball) To play baseball in the position of pitcher.
    Bob pitches today.
  6. (transitive) To throw away; discard.
    Synonyms: cast aside, throw away; see also Thesaurus:junk
    He pitched the candy wrapper.
  7. (transitive) To promote, advertise, or attempt to sell.
    He pitched the idea for months with no takers.
  8. (transitive) To deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind.
    At which level should I pitch my presentation?
  9. (transitive) To assemble or erect (a tent). Also used figuratively.
    Pitch the tent over there.
    • 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[4]:
      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 [...]
  10. (intransitive) To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.
  11. (transitive, intransitive, aviation or nautical) To move so that the front of an aircraft or boat goes alternatively up and down.
    The typhoon pitched the deck of the ship.
    The airplane pitched.
  12. (transitive) To set at an angle, especially a downwards one; to cause to tilt.
    • 2020 August 4, Don Kostelec, ““Fully implement ADA.” Do agencies know what that means?”, in Kostelec Planning‎[5]:
      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.
  13. (transitive, golf) 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.
  14. (intransitive, cricket) To bounce on the playing surface.
    The ball pitched well short of the batsman.
  15. (intransitive, Bristol, of snow) To settle and build up, without melting.
  16. (intransitive, archaic) To alight; to settle; to come to rest from flight.
    • 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:
      the tree whereon they [the bees] pitch
  17. (with on or upon) To fix one's choice.
  18. (intransitive) To plunge or fall; especially, to fall forward; to decline or slope.
    to pitch from a precipice
    The field pitches toward the east.
  19. (transitive) To set, face, or pave (an embankment or roadway) with rubble or undressed stones.
    • 1838, Thomas Hughes, The Practice of Making & Repairing Roads:
      […] pitch the road with hard stones [rather] than to break them up for a road covering
  20. (transitive) To set or fix (a price or value).
  21. (transitive, card games, slang) To discard (a card) for some gain.
  22. To attack, or position or assemble for attack.
    • 1801, Thomas Coke, chapter 11, in A Commentary on the Holy Bible: Commentary on the Old Teatament‎[6], Joshua, page 51, verse 5:
      They pitched at the waters of Merom. These waters of Merom are generally thought to be nothing but the lake of Semechon,[…]
    • 1866, Charles Dickens, Works: Sketches by Boz: Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People with Illustrations by George Cruikshank‎[7], page 65:
      “Vy don’t you pitch into her Sarah?” exclaims one half-dressed matron by way of encouragement.
    • 1868, Rock Ruin; or the Daughter of the Island, page 23:
      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.
    • 1886, James Osgood Andrew Clark, Elijah Vindicated: Or The Answer by Fire‎[8], page 378:
      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.
    • 1892, Louis Barnett Abrahams, A Manual of Scripture History for Use in Jewish Schools and Families‎[9], page 72:
      The Philistines, hearing that Israel were assembled at Mizpeh, raised an army and pitched against them.
    • 2015, William Dean Howells, Delphi Complete Works of William Dean Howells:
      He would pitch into her, and pitch into himself, and then he would dwell on her good qualities, […]
    • 2016, A. González Enciso, War, Power and the Economy: Mercantilism and state formation in 18th-century Europe‎[10], page 144:
      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.
  23. (brewing) To add yeast as a step while making beer
    • 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[11], volume 87, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 187–193:
      except for the cell growth which is higher for the yeast pitched with lower vitality
    • 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[12], volume 82, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 155–167:
      five pitching rates were applied to lab-scale fermentations to investigate its impact on the yeast
    • 2019 August 1, Girmay Kalayu, “Serial re-pitching: its effect on yeast physiology, fermentation performance, and product quality”, in Annals of Microbiology‎[13], volume 69, number 8, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 787–796:
      Since yeast propagation is time and resource intensive, it is customary to serially re-pitch yeast
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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

Noun

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pitch (countable and uncountable, plural pitches)

  1. (music, phonetics) The perceived frequency of a sound or note.
    The pitch of middle "C" is familiar to many musicians.
  2. (music) 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. (music) 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.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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pitch (third-person singular simple present pitches, present participle pitching, simple past and past participle pitched)

  1. (intransitive) To produce a note of a given pitch.
  2. (transitive) To fix or set the tone of.
    • 1955 October, Rex Stout, “Die Like a Dog”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, →ISBN, pages 196–197:
      His "hello" was enough to recognize his voice by. I pitched mine low so he wouldn't know it.
Translations
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References

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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pitch m (plural pitchs)

  1. pitch (sales patter, inclination)

Italian

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Noun

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pitch m

  1. (cricket) cricket pitch
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