Definition: pitch
Source: WordNet (r) 1.7
pitch
n 1: the property of sound that varies with variation in the
frequency of vibration
2: (baseball) the throwing of a baseball by a pitcher to a
batter [syn: delivery]
3: (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"
4: promotion by means of an argument and demonstration [syn: sales
talk, sales pitch]
5: degree of deviation from a horizontal plane: "the roof had a
steep pitch" [syn: rake, slant]
6: any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a
residue [syn: tar]
7: a high approach shot in golf [syn: pitch shot]
8: an all-fours game in which the first card led is a trump
[syn: auction pitch]
9: abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other
conveyance); "the pitching and tossing was quite exciting"
[syn: lurch, pitching]
10: the action or manner of throwing something; "his pitch fell
short and his hat landed on the floor"
v 1: throw or toss with a light motion; "flip me the beachball";
"toss me newspaper" [syn: flip, toss, sky]
2: move abruptly [syn: lurch, shift]
3: fall forwards
4: set to a certain pitch, as of an instrument or one's voice;
"He pitched his voice very low"
5: sell or offer for sale from place to place [syn: peddle, monger,
huckster, hawk, vend]
6: be at an angle; "The terrain sloped down" [syn: slope, incline]
7: heel over [syn: cant, cant over, tilt, slant]
8: erect and fasten; "pitch a tent" [syn: set up]
9: throw or hurl, as in baseball; "The pitcher delivered the
ball" [syn: deliver]
10: erect and fix firmly in place; "They pitched the roof at a
steep slant"
11: cause to be at a particular level; "She pitched her
aspirations too high"
12: set the level or character of; "She pitched her speech to
the teenagers in the audience" [syn: gear]
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Pitch \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 \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 \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 \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 \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 \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, 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.
Dip \Dip\, n.
1. The action of dipping or plunging for a moment into a
liquid. ``The dip of oars in unison.'' --Glover.
2. Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line;
slope; pitch.
3. A liquid, as a sauce or gravy, served at table with a
ladle or spoon. [Local, U.S.] --Bartlett.
4. A dipped candle. [Colloq.] --Marryat.
Dip of the horizon (Astron.), the angular depression of the
seen or visible horizon below the true or natural horizon;
the angle at the eye of an observer between a horizontal
line and a tangent drawn from the eye to the surface of
the ocean.
Dip of the needle, or Magnetic dip, the angle formed, in
a vertical plane, by a freely suspended magnetic needle,
or the line of magnetic force, with a horizontal line; --
called also inclination.
Dip of a stratum (Geol.), its greatest angle of inclination
to the horizon, or that of a line perpendicular to its
direction or strike; -- called also the pitch.
Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Pitch (Gen. 6:14), asphalt or bitumen in its soft state, called "slime" (Gen. 11:3; 14:10; Ex. 2:3), found in pits near the Dead Sea (q.v.). It was used for various purposes, as the coating of the outside of vessels and in building. Allusion is made in Isa. 34:9 to its inflammable character. (See SLIME.)
