Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To throw, usually with careful aim. synonym: throw.
  • intransitive verb To discard by throwing.
  • intransitive verb To throw (the ball) from the mound to the batter.
  • intransitive verb To play (a game or part of a game) as pitcher.
  • intransitive verb To assign as pitcher.
  • intransitive verb To erect or establish; set up.
  • intransitive verb To set firmly; implant; embed.
  • intransitive verb To set at a specified downward slant.
  • intransitive verb To set at a particular level, degree, or quality.
  • intransitive verb Music To set the pitch or key of.
  • intransitive verb To adapt so as to be applicable; direct.
  • intransitive verb Informal To attempt to promote or sell, often in a high-pressure manner.
  • intransitive verb Sports To hit (a golf ball) in a high arc with backspin so that it does not roll very far after striking the ground.
  • intransitive verb To lead (a card), thus establishing the trump suit.
  • intransitive verb To discard (a card other than a trump and different in suit from the card led).
  • intransitive verb To throw or toss something, such as a ball, horseshoe, or bale.
  • intransitive verb Baseball To play in the position of pitcher.
  • intransitive verb To plunge headlong.
  • intransitive verb To stumble around; lurch.
  • intransitive verb To buck, as a horse.
  • intransitive verb Nautical To dip bow and stern alternately.
  • intransitive verb To oscillate about a lateral axis so that the nose lifts or descends in relation to the tail. Used of an aircraft.
  • intransitive verb To oscillate about a lateral axis that is both perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and horizontal to the earth. Used of a missile or spacecraft.
  • intransitive verb To slope downward.
  • intransitive verb To set up living quarters; encamp; settle.
  • intransitive verb Sports To hit a golf ball in a high arc with backspin so that it does not roll very far after striking the ground.
  • noun The act or an instance of pitching.
  • noun A throw of the ball by the pitcher to the batter.
  • noun A ball so thrown.
  • noun Sports A playing field.
  • noun Nautical The alternate dip and rise of the bow and stern of a ship.
  • noun The alternate lift and descent of the nose and tail of an airplane.
  • noun A steep downward slope.
  • noun The degree of such a slope.
  • noun The angle of a roof.
  • noun The highest point of a structure.
  • noun A level or degree, as of intensity.
  • noun Acoustics The distinctive quality of a sound, dependent primarily on the frequency of the sound waves produced by its source.
  • noun Music The relative position of a tone within a range of musical sounds, as determined by this quality.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pichen, probably from Old English *piccean, causative of *pīcian, to prick.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pich, from Old English pic and from Anglo-Norman piche, both from Latin pix, pic-.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English piċ, from Latin pīx. Cognate with Dutch pek, German Pech.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English pitch ("to thrust in, fasten, settle"), from Old English

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Examples

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  • Depend upon it, child, I’ll never control your choice; but Mr. Marlow whom I have pitched upon, is the son of my old friend, Sir Charles Marlow, of whom you have heard me talk so often.

    Goldsmith, She Stoops, I

    January 8, 2007

  • A playing surface for the game of cricket.

    November 29, 2007

  • What time is it? What time is it?

    This dark corridor shrouded in thought

    Cannot resist the night coachman . . .

    The telephone rings, rings again, nervously—

    What time is it? What time is it?

    God, this sudden early-morning rain

    Attacks like an endless torrent of pitch.

    - Galaktion Tabidze, 'What Time Is It?' translated from the Georgian by Adam J. Sorkin and Nana Bukhradze

    November 10, 2008

  • "'There's one place where that Dalrymple chap talks even on for two pages, and never lets the girl get a word in edgewise. If he'd done that in real life she'd have pitched him.'"

    -Mr. Harrison in Anne of the Island

    May 29, 2009

  • "Son, what kind of pitch would you like to miss?" - American League baseball pitcher Jerome Hanna (Dizzy) Dean - asked of new/young batters he'd never pitched against.

    February 19, 2011