Definitions for: Pitch


[n] abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other conveyance); "the pitching and tossing was quite exciting"
[n] the action or manner of throwing something; "his pitch fell short and his hat landed on the floor"
[n] (baseball) the throwing of a baseball by a pitcher to a batter
[n] an all-fours game in which the first card led is a trump
[n] a high approach shot in golf
[n] the property of sound that varies with variation in the frequency of vibration
[n] degree of deviation from a horizontal plane; "the roof had a steep pitch"
[n] promotion by means of an argument and demonstration
[n] (British) a vendor's position (especially on the sidewalk); "he was employed to see that his paper's news pitches were not trespassed upon by rival vendors"
[n] any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue
[v] set the level or character of; "She pitched her speech to the teenagers in the audience"
[v] cause to be at a particular level; "She pitched her aspirations too high"
[v] set to a certain pitch, as of an instrument or one's voice; "He pitched his voice very low"
[v] erect and fix firmly in place; "They pitched the roof at a steep slant"
[v] throw or hurl, as in baseball; "The pitcher delivered the ball"
[v] throw or toss with a light motion; "flip me the beachball"; "toss me newspaper"
[v] erect and fasten; "pitch a tent"
[v] move abruptly
[v] heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is slanting"
[v] fall forwards
[v] be at an angle; "The terrain sloped down"
[v] sell or offer for sale from place to place



Webster (1913) Definition: Pitch, n. (Elec.)
The distance between symmetrically arranged or corresponding
parts of an armature, measured along a line, called the pitch
line, drawn around its length. Sometimes half of this
distance is called the pitch.

Pitch of poles (Elec.), the distance between a pair of
poles of opposite sign.


Pitch, n. [OE. pich, AS. pic, L. pix; akin to Gr. ?.]
1. A thick, black, lustrous, and sticky substance obtained by
boiling down tar. It is used in calking the seams of
ships; also in coating rope, canvas, wood, ironwork, etc.,
to preserve them.

He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith.
--Ecclus.
xiii. 1.

2. (Geol.) See Pitchstone.

Amboyna pitch, the resin of Dammara australis. See
Kauri.

Burgundy pitch. See under Burgundy.

Canada pitch, the resinous exudation of the hemlock tree
(Abies Canadensis); hemlock gum.

Jew's pitch, bitumen.

Mineral pitch. See Bitumen and Asphalt.

Pitch coal (Min.), bituminous coal.

Pitch peat (Min.), a black homogeneous peat, with a waxy
luster.

Pitch pine (Bot.), any one of several species of pine,
yielding pitch, esp. the Pinus rigida of North America.


Pitch, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pitched; p. pr. & vb. n.
Pitching.] [See Pitch, n.]
1. To cover over or smear with pitch. --Gen. vi. 14.

2. Fig.: To darken; to blacken; to obscure.

The welkin pitched with sullen could. --Addison.


Pitch, v. t. [OE. picchen; akin to E. pick, pike.]
1. To throw, generally with a definite aim or purpose; to
cast; to hurl; to toss; as, to pitch quoits; to pitch hay;
to pitch a ball.

2. To thrust or plant in the ground, as stakes or poles;
hence, to fix firmly, as by means of poles; to establish;
to arrange; as, to pitch a tent; to pitch a camp.

3. To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as
an embankment or a roadway. --Knight.

4. To fix or set the tone of; as, to pitch a tune.

5. To set or fix, as a price or value. [Obs.] --Shak.

Pitched battle, a general battle; a battle in which the
hostile forces have fixed positions; -- in distinction
from a skirmish.

To pitch into, to attack; to assault; to abuse. [Slang]


Pitch, v. i.
1. To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.
``Laban with his brethren pitched in the Mount of
Gilead.'' --Gen. xxxi. 25.

2. To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight.

The tree whereon they [the bees] pitch. --Mortimer.

3. To fix one's choise; -- with on or upon.

Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will
render it the more easy. --Tillotson.

4. To plunge or fall; esp., to fall forward; to decline or
slope; as, to pitch from a precipice; the vessel pitches
in a heavy sea; the field pitches toward the east.

Pitch and pay, an old aphorism which inculcates ready-money
payment, or payment on delivery of goods. --Shak.


Pitch, n.
1. A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand;
as, a good pitch in quoits.

Pitch and toss, a game played by tossing up a coin, and
calling ``Heads or tails;'' hence:

To play pitch and toss with (anything), to be careless or
trust to luck about it. ``To play pitch and toss with the
property of the country.'' --G. Eliot.

Pitch farthing. See Chuck farthing, under 5th Chuck.

2. (Cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball
pitches or lights when bowled.

3. A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation
or depression; hence, a limit or bound.

Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down Into
this deep. --Milton.

Enterprises of great pitch and moment. --Shak.

To lowest pitch of abject fortune. --Milton.

He lived when learning was at its highest pitch.
--Addison.

The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends.
--Sharp.

4. Height; stature. [Obs.] --Hudibras.

5. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.

6. The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity
itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent
or slope; slant; as, a steep pitch in the road; the pitch
of a roof.

7. (Mus.) The relative acuteness or gravity of a tone,
determined by the number of vibrations which produce it;
the place of any tone upon a scale of high and low.

Note: Musical tones with reference to absolute pitch, are
named after the first seven letters of the alphabet;
with reference to relative pitch, in a series of tones
called the scale, they are called one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight is also one of a
new scale an octave higher, as one is eight of a scale
an octave lower.

8. (Mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a
share of the ore taken out.

9. (Mech.)
(a) The distance from center to center of any two adjacent
teeth of gearing, measured on the pitch line; --
called also circular pitch.
(b) The length, measured along the axis, of a complete
turn of the thread of a screw, or of the helical lines
of the blades of a screw propeller.
(c) The distance between the centers of holes, as of rivet
holes in boiler plates.

Concert pitch (Mus.), the standard of pitch used by
orchestras, as in concerts, etc.

Diametral pitch (Gearing), the distance which bears the
same relation to the pitch proper, or circular pitch, that
the diameter of a circle bears to its circumference; it is
sometimes described by the number expressing the quotient
obtained by dividing the number of teeth in a wheel by the
diameter of its pitch circle in inches; as, 4 pitch, 8
pitch, etc.

Pitch chain, a chain, as one made of metallic plates,
adapted for working with a sprocket wheel.

Pitch line, or Pitch circle (Gearing), an ideal line, in
a toothed gear or rack, bearing such a relation to a
corresponding line in another gear, with which the former
works, that the two lines will have a common velocity as
in rolling contact; it usually cuts the teeth at about the
middle of their height, and, in a circular gear, is a
circle concentric with the axis of the gear; the line, or
circle, on which the pitch of teeth is measured.

Pitch of a roof (Arch.), the inclination or slope of the
sides expressed by the height in parts of the span; as,
one half pitch; whole pitch; or by the height in parts of
the half span, especially among engineers; or by degrees,
as a pitch of 30[deg], of 45[deg], etc.; or by the rise
and run, that is, the ratio of the height to the half
span; as, a pitch of six rise to ten run. Equilateral
pitch is where the two sloping sides with the span form an
equilateral triangle.

Pitch of a plane (Carp.), the slant of the cutting iron.

Pitch pipe, a wind instrument used by choristers in
regulating the pitch of a tune.

Pitch point (Gearing), the point of contact of the pitch
lines of two gears, or of a rack and pinion, which work
together.

Synonyms: auction pitch, cant, cant over, deliver, delivery, flip, gear, hawk, huckster, incline, lurch, lurch, monger, peddle, pitch shot, pitching, rake, sales pitch, sales talk, set up, shift, sky, slant, slant, slope, tar, tilt, toss, vend

See Also: accommodate, adapt, all fours, angle, approach, approach shot, ascend, balk, ball, baseball, baseball game, beanball, beaner, bender, bitumen, breaking ball, bullet, camp, camp down, careen, change-of-pace, change-of-pace ball, change-up, climb, coal tar, cock, come down, concert pitch, curve, curve ball, deal, descend, dip, duster, erect, fall, fastball, fling, go down, gradient, heater, high frequency, high pitch, high-low-jack, hummer, international pitch, key, knuckleball, knuckler, lag, lay, lean, low frequency, low pitch, motility, motion, move, move, movement, off-speed pitch, packaging, philharmonic pitch, place, place, popularise, popularize, pose, position, position, promotion, promotional material, publicity, put, rear, rock, screwball, sell, set, set, sinker, slope, smoke, sound property, spitball, spitter, stoop, strike, strike out, submarine, submarine ball, submarine pitch, sway, throw, throw, throw back, tilt, tip, tone, toss back, trade, wild pitch

Try our:
Scrabble Word Finder

Scrabble Cheat

Words With Friends Cheat

Hanging With Friends Cheat

Scramble With Friends Cheat

Ruzzle Cheat



Related Resources:
animals beginning with o
animlas that start with c
animals beginning with f