PITCH, n. [L. pix; Gr. most probably named from its thickness or inspissation; L. figo.]

1. A thick tenacious substance, the juice of a species of pine or fir called Abies picea, obtained by incision from the bark of the tree. When melted and pressed in bags of cloth, it is received into barrels. This is white or Burgundy pitch; by mixture with lampblack it is converted into black pitch. When kept long in fusion with vinegar, it becomes dry and brown, and forms colophony. The smoke of pitch condensed forms lampblack. – Fourcroy.
2. The impure resin of pine, or turpentine, inspissated; used in calking ships and paying the sides and bottom.

1. Literally, a point; hence, any point or degree of elevation; as, a high pitch; lowest pitch. How high a pitch his resolution soars. – Shak. Alcibiades was one of the best orators of his age, notwithstanding he lived when learning was at its highest pitch. – Addison.
2. Highest rise. – Shak.
3. Size; stature. So like in person, garb and pitch. – Hudibras.
4. Degree; rate. No pitch of glory from the grave is free. – Waller.
5. The point where a declivity begins, or the declivity itself; descent; slope; as, the pitch of a hill.
6. The degree of descent or declivity.
7. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
8. Degree of elevation of the key-note of a tune, or of any note.

1. To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight. Take a branch of the tree on which the bees pitch, and wipe the hive. – Mortimer.
2. To fall headlong; as, to pitch from a precipice; to pitch on the head. – Dryden.
3. To plunge; as, to pitch into a river.
4. To fall; to fix choice; with on or upon. Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will render it the most easy. – Tillotson.
5. To fix a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp. Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead. – Gen. xxxi.
6. In navigation, to rise and fall, as the head and stern of a ship passing over waves.
7. To flow or fall precipitously, as a river. Over this rock the river pitches in one entire sheet. – B. Trumbull.

1. To throw or thrust, and primarily, to thrust a long or pointed object; hence, to fix; to plant; to set; as, to pitch a tent or pavilion, that is, to set the stakes. – Dryden.
2. To throw at a point; as, to pitch quoits.
3. To throw headlong; as, to pitch one in the mire or down a precipice.
4. To throw with a fork; as, to pitch hay or sheaves of corn.
5. To regulate or set the key-note of a tune in music.
6. To set in array; to marshal or arrange in order; used chiefly in the participle; as, a pitched battle.
7. [from pitch.] To smear or pay over with pitch; as, to pitch the seams of a ship.

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. To cover over or smear with pitch.
   
   
   Gen. vi. 14.
3. 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.
4. To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp.
   
   
   "Laban with his brethren pitched in the Mount of Gilead." Gen. xxxi. 25.
5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Fig.: To darken] to blacken; to obscure.
   
   

   The welkin pitched with sullen could. Addison.

9. 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.
10. To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight.
    
    

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

11. That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled.
12. To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway.
    
    
    Knight.
13. 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.

14. 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.

15. To fix or set the tone of; as, to pitch a tune.
16. 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.

17. Height; stature.
    
    
    [Obs.] Hudibras.
18. 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]

19. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
20. 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.
21. 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.
    
    

    * 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.

22. The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out.
23. The distance from center to center of any two adjacent teeth of gearing, measured on the pitch line; -- called also circular pitch.
    
    
    (b)