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(), 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 descendi 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. スポンサード リンク
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