n. [ OE. pich, AS. pic, L. pix; akin to Gr. &unr_;. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith. Ecclus. xiii. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Geol.) See Pitchstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: To darken; to blacken; to obscure. [ 1913 Webster ]

The welkin pitched with sullen could. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To fix or set the tone of; as, to pitch a tune. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To set or fix, as a price or value. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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 ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight. [ 1913 Webster ]

The tree whereon they [ the bees ] pitch. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fix one's choise; -- with on or upon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the more easy. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pitch and pay, an old aphorism which inculcates ready-money payment, or payment on delivery of goods. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand; as, a good pitch in quoits. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation or depression; hence, a limit or bound. [ 1913 Webster ]

Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down
Into this deep. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Enterprises of great pitch and moment. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To lowest pitch of abject fortune. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

He lived when learning was at its highest pitch. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends. Sharp. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Height; stature. [ Obs. ] Hudibras. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. (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.

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°, of 45°, 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 of poles (Elec.), the distance between a pair of poles of opposite sign. --
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. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Black as pitch or tar. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ 1st pitch + blende. ] (Min.) A pitch-black mineral consisting chiefly of the oxide of uranium; uraninite. See Uraninite. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Dark as a pitch; pitch-black. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. picher, OF. pichier, OHG. pehhar, pehhāri; prob. of the same origin as E. beaker. Cf. Beaker. ] 1. A wide-mouthed, deep vessel for holding liquids, with a spout or protruding lip and a handle; a water jug or jar with a large ear or handle. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A tubular or cuplike appendage or expansion of the leaves of certain plants. [ 1913 Webster ]

American pitcher plants, the species of Sarracenia. See Sarracenia. --
Australian pitcher plant, the Cephalotus follicularis, a low saxifragaceous herb having two kinds of radical leaves, some oblanceolate and entire, others transformed into little ovoid pitchers, longitudinally triple-winged and ciliated, the mouth covered with a lid shaped like a cockleshell. --
California pitcher plant, the Darlingtonia California. See Darlingtonia. --
Pitcher plant, any plant with the whole or a part of the leaves transformed into pitchers or cuplike organs, especially the species of Nepenthes. See Nepenthes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who pitches anything, as hay, quoits, a ball, etc.; specifically (Baseball), the player who delivers the ball to the batsman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A sort of crowbar for digging. [ Obs. ] Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]