Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of 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\, 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 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.