pitch

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various thick, dark, sticky substances obtained from the distillation residue of coal tar, wood tar, or petroleum and used for waterproofing, roofing, caulking, and paving.
2. n. Any of various natural bitumens, such as mineral pitch or asphalt.
3. n. A resin derived from the sap of various coniferous trees, as the pines.
4. v. To smear or cover with or as if with pitch.
5. v. To throw, usually with careful aim. See Synonyms at throw.
6. v. To discard by throwing: pitched the can out the window.
7. v. Baseball To throw (the ball) from the mound to the batter.
8. v. Baseball To play (a game) as pitcher.
9. v. Baseball To assign as pitcher.
10. v. To erect or establish; set up: pitched a tent; pitch camp.
11. v. To set firmly; implant; embed: pitched stakes in the ground.
12. v. To set at a specified downward slant: pitched the roof at a steep angle.
13. v. To set at a particular level, degree, or quality: pitched her expectations too high.
14. v. Music To set the pitch or key of.
15. v. To adapt so as to be applicable; direct: pitched his speech to the teenagers in the audience.
16. v. Informal To attempt to promote or sell, often in a high-pressure manner: "showed up on local TV to pitch their views” ( Business Week).
17. v. Sports To hit (a golf ball) in a high arc with backspin so that it does not roll very far after striking the ground.
18. v. Games To lead (a card), thus establishing the trump suit.
19. v. Games To discard (a card other than a trump and different in suit from the card led).
20. v. To throw or toss something, such as a ball, horseshoe, or bale.
21. v. Baseball To play in the position of pitcher.
22. v. To plunge headlong: He pitched over the railing.
23. v. To stumble around; lurch.
24. v. To buck, as a horse.
25. v. Nautical To dip bow and stern alternately.
26. v. To oscillate about a lateral axis so that the nose lifts or descends in relation to the tail. Used of an aircraft.
27. v. 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.
28. v. To slope downward: The hill pitches steeply.
29. v. To set up living quarters; encamp; settle.
30. v. Sports To hit a golf ball in a high arc with backspin so that it does not roll very far after striking the ground.
31. n. The act or an instance of pitching.
32. n. Baseball A throw of the ball by the pitcher to the batter.
33. n. Baseball A ball so thrown.
34. n. Chiefly British A playing field. Also called wicket.
35. n. Nautical The alternate dip and rise of the bow and stern of a ship.
36. n. The alternate lift and descent of the nose and tail of an airplane.
37. n. A steep downward slope.
38. n. The degree of such a slope.
39. n. Architecture The angle of a roof.
40. n. Architecture The highest point of a structure: the pitch of an arch.
41. n. A level or degree, as of intensity: worked at a feverish pitch to meet the deadline.
42. n. Acoustics The distinctive quality of a sound, dependent primarily on the frequency of the sound waves produced by its source.
43. n. Music The relative position of a tone within a range of musical sounds, as determined by this quality.
44. n. Music Any of various standards for this quality associating each tone with a particular frequency.
45. n. The distance traveled by a machine screw in a single revolution.
46. n. The distance between two corresponding points on adjacent screw threads or gear teeth.
47. n. The distance between two corresponding points on a helix.
48. n. The distance that a propeller would travel in an ideal medium during one complete revolution, measured parallel to the shaft of the propeller.
49. n. Informal A line of talk designed to persuade: "[his] pious pitch for . . . austerity” ( Boston Globe).
50. n. Informal An advertisement.
51. n. Chiefly British The stand of a vendor or hawker.
52. n. Games See seven-up.
53. n. Printing The density of characters in a printed line, usually expressed as characters per inch.
54. pitch in Informal To set to work vigorously.
55. pitch in Informal To join forces with others; help or cooperate.
56. pitch into Informal To attack verbally or physically; assault.
57. on Informal To succeed in choosing or achieving, usually quickly: pitched on the ideal solution.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To pierce with a sharp point; divide with something sharp and pointed; transfix.
2. To thrust into the ground, as a stake or pointed peg; hence, to plant or fix; set up; place: as, to pitch a tent or a camp; to pitch the wickets in cricket.
3. To fix or set in order; array; arrange; set.
4. To fix, as a rate, value, or price; rate; class.
5. To fling or throw; hurl; toss: as, to pitch a pike or a dart; to pitch a ball or a penny.
6. Specifically, in base-ball, to serve (the ball) to the batter. See base-ball.
7. In music, to determine or set the key (tonality) or key-note of; fix the relative shrillness or height of; start or set (a piece) by sounding the key-note or first tone: as. to pitch a tune high.
8. To pave roughly; face with stones.
9. In certain card-games, to lead one of (a certain suit), thereby selecting it as trump.
10. To fix a tent or temporary habitation; encamp.
11. To come to rest; settle down; sit-down; alight.
12. To fix or decide: with on or upon.
13. To plunge or fall headlong.
14. Nautical, to plunge with alternate fall and rise of bow and stern, as a ship passing over waves. The motion is most marked when running into a head sea.
15. To throw, toss, or hurl a missile or other object; throw a ball; specifically, in games of ball, to fill the position of pitcher; serve the ball to the batsman.
16. To buck; jump from the ground with the legs bunched together, as a mustang or mule. Sportsman's Gazetteer. See cut under buck.
17. n. The highest point or reach; height; acme.
18. n. Height (or depth) in general; point or degree of elevation (or of depth); degree; point.
19. n. In acoustics and music:
20. n. That characteristie of a sound or a tone which depends upon the relative rapidity of the vibrations by which it is produced, a relatively acute or high pitch resulting from rapid vibrations, and a relatively grave or low pitch from slow vibrations. Pitch is therefore coordinate with force, timbre, and duration. It is estimated and stated in terms of the vibration per second of the sounding body. It is experimentally determined either by direct comparison with a standard tuning-fork or by such instruments as the siren.
21. n. A particular tonal standard or example with which given tones may be compared in respect to their relative height: as, concert pitch; French pitch. Various standards have from time to time been used or promulgated —as, for example, classical pitch, during the last half of the eighteenth century, for the A next above middle C about 415 to 430 vibrations per second; concert pitch (commonly called high pitch), used in concert and operatic music during the middle of the nineteenth century, varying for the same A from about 440 to 455 vibrations; French pitch (commonly called low pitch), the diapason normal adopted by the French Academy in 1859, for the same A 435 vibrations; philosophical pitch, an arbitrary pitch for middle C, obtained by taking the nearest power of 2, that is, 256 vibrations, or for the next A above about 427 vibrations; Scheibler's pitch, adopted by the Stuttgart Congress of Physicists in 1834, for the same A 440 vibrations.
22. n. Specifically.
23. n. The height to which a hawk rises in the air when waiting for game to be flushed, or before stooping on its prey.
24. n. Stature; height.
25. n. Inclination; angle to the horizon.
26. n. In mech.:
27. n. The distance between the centers of two adjacent teeth in a cog-wheel, measured on the pitch-line, which is concentric with the axis of revolution, and at such a distance from the base of the teeth as to have an equal rate of motion with a similar line in the cog-wheel with which it engages.
28. n. The distance between the medial lines of any two successive convolutions or threads of a screw, measured in a direction parallel to the axis: the pitch of a propeller-screw is the length measured along the axis of a complete turn.
29. n. The distance between the paddles of a steamship, measured on the circle which passes through their centers.
30. n. The distance between the stays of marine and other steam-boilers.
31. n. The distance from center to center of rivets.
32. n. The rake of saw-teeth (see rake).
33. n. A throw; a toss; the act by which something is thrown or hurled from one or at something. Specifically, in base-ball:
34. n. A place on which to pitch or set up a booth or stand for the sale or exhibition of something; a stand.
35. n. In card-playing, the game all-fours or seven-up played without begging, and with the trump made by leading (pitching) one of a selected suit, instead of being turned up after dealing.
36. n. In mining, a certain length on the course of the lode, taken by a tributor, or to work on tribute. Also called tribute-pitch.
37. n. In floor-cloth printing, one of the guide-pins used as registering-marks, corresponding to the register-points in lithographic printing.
38. n. In naval architecture, downward angular displacement of the hull of a vessel, measured in a longitudinal vertical plane at right angles with and on either side of a horizontal transverse axis passing through the center of flotation: a correlative of scend (which see).
39. n. An iron crowbar with a thick square point, for making holes in the ground.
40. n. A thick tenacious resinous substance, hard when cold, the residuum of tar after its volatile elements have been expelled: obtained also from the residues of distilled turpentine. It is manufactured mostly in tar-producing countries, especially Russia. It is largely used to cover the seams of vessels after calking, and to protect wood from the effects of moisture; also medicinally in ointments, etc.
41. n. The sap or crude turpentine which exudes from the bark of pines. [An improper use.]
42. n. Bitumen: a word of indefinite meaning used to designate any kind of bituminous material, but more especially the less fluid varieties (maltha and asphaltum).
43. To smear or cover over with pitch: as, to pitch the seams of a ship.
44. To make pitch-dark; darken.
45. In brewing, to add to (wort) the yeast for the purpose of setting up fermentation.
46. To lose flesh in sickness; fall away; decline.
47. To set out, as plants.
48. In golf, to strike (the ball) with a lofted club so that it goes up into the air and alights with little roll.
49. n. In textile manuf, the setting, or distance apart, of the wire teeth in card-clothing.
50. n. In golf, a ball played with more or less loft.
51. n. In cricket: That part of the cricket-field upon which the batting and bowling are done.
52. n. The point at which the ball first touches the ground when bowled.
53. n. Of the ball bowled, the distance between the bowler's wicket and the point where the ball first touches the ground; the length.
54. n. In building, the slope, as of a roof; the angle with the horizon, generally stated in terms of the horizontal and vertical. Thus, a tin roof may have a pitch of one in twenty-four, or half an inch to a foot.
55. n. In an electric generator or motor, the distance from the center of a pole to that of the next pole of opposite sign, measured along the pitch-line.
56. n. The memory of such precise pitch, or the power to reproduce it at will. A person with the sense of absolute pitch can name tones correctly upon hearing them, even in fortuitous or distracting relations; can produce particular tones with the voice without help from instruments or other artificial reference; and can even give tones at correct pitch while incorrect tones are being sounded. The capacity or faculty of noting absolute pitch seems to vary in different persons, but it can be greatly cultivated by attention and practice. Many otherwise good musicians lack it, while some who are not specially musical have it. It is often notable in the case of the blind.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; sap.
2. n. A dark, extremely viscous material remaining in still after distilling crude oil and tar.
3. n. baseball The act of pitching a baseball.
4. n. sports The field on which cricket, soccer, rugby or field hockey is played.
5. n. An effort to sell or promote something.
6. n. The distance between evenly spaced objects, e.g. the teeth of a saw, the turns of a screw thread, or letters in a monospace font.
7. n. The angle at which an object sits.
8. n. More specifically, the rotation angle about the transverse axis.
9. n. A level or degree.
10. n. aviation A measure of the degree to which an aircraft's nose tilts up or down.
11. n. aviation A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller.
12. n. nautical The measure of extent to which a nautical vessel rotates on its athwartships axis, causing its bow and stern to go up and down. Compare with roll, yaw and heave.
13. n. The place where a busker performs.
14. n. An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader.
15. n. An intensity.
16. n. climbing A section of a climb or rock face; specifically, the climbing distance between belays or stances.
17. n. caving A vertical cave passage, only negotiable by using rope or ladders.
18. n. A person or animal's height.
19. v. transitive To throw.
20. v. transitive or intransitive, baseball To throw (the ball) toward home plate.
21. v. intransitive, baseball To play baseball in the position of pitcher.
22. v. transitive To throw away; discard.
23. v. transitive To promote, advertise, or attempt to sell.
24. v. transitive To deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind.
25. v. transitive To assemble or erect (a tent).
26. v. transitive, intransitive To move so that the front of an aircraft or ship goes alternatively up and down.
27. v. transitive, golf To play a short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin.
28. v. intransitive, cricket To bounce on the playing surface.
29. v. intransitive, of snow To settle and build up, without melting.
30. n. music The perceived frequency of a sound or note.
31. n. music In an a cappella group, the singer responsible for singing a note for the other members to tune themselves by.
32. v. To produce a note of a given pitch.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. n. (Geol.) See Pitchstone.
3. v. To cover over or smear with pitch.
4. v. Fig.: To darken; to blacken; to obscure.
5. v. To throw, generally with a definite aim or purpose; to cast; to hurl; to toss
6. v. To thrust or plant in the ground, as stakes or poles; hence, to fix firmly, as by means of poles; to establish; to arrange
7. v. To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway.
8. v. To fix or set the tone of.
9. v. obsolete To set or fix, as a price or value.
10. v. To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.
11. v. To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight.
12. v. To fix one's choise; -- with on or upon.
13. v. To plunge or fall; esp., to fall forward; to decline or slope
14. n. A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand.
15. n. (Cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
16. n. A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation or depression; hence, a limit or bound.
17. n. obsolete Height; stature.
18. n. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
19. n. The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant.
20. n. (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.
21. n. (Mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.
22. n. The distance from center to center of any two adjacent teeth of gearing, measured on the pitch line; -- called also circular pitch.
23. n. 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.
24. n. The distance between the centers of holes, as of rivet holes in boiler plates.
25. 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. heel over
2. v. move abruptly
3. n. abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other conveyance)
4. v. throw or toss with a light motion
5. v. set the level or character of
6. v. sell or offer for sale from place to place
7. n. a high approach shot in golf
8. n. the property of sound that varies with variation in the frequency of vibration
9. v. set to a certain pitch
10. n. any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue
11. v. fall or plunge forward
12. n. degree of deviation from a horizontal plane
13. v. lead (a card) and establish the trump suit
14. n. (baseball) the act of throwing a baseball by a pitcher to a batter
15. v. hit (a golf ball) in a high arc with a backspin
16. n. the action or manner of throwing something
17. v. throw or hurl from the mound to the batter, as in baseball
18. n. promotion by means of an argument and demonstration
19. n. a vendor's position (especially on the sidewalk)
20. n. an all-fours game in which the first card led is a trump
21. v. be at an angle
22. v. erect and fasten