pitch
    n 1: the property of sound that varies with variation in the
         frequency of vibration
    2: (baseball) the act of throwing a baseball by a pitcher to a
       batter [syn: pitch, delivery]
    3: 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, pitch]
    5: degree of deviation from a horizontal plane; "the roof had a
       steep pitch" [syn: pitch, rake, slant]
    6: any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a
       residue [syn: pitch, tar]
    7: a high approach shot in golf [syn: pitch, pitch shot]
    8: an all-fours game in which the first card led is a trump
       [syn: pitch, 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, pitch, 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, pitch]
    2: move abruptly; "The ship suddenly lurched to the left" [syn:
       lurch, pitch, shift]
    3: fall or plunge forward; "She pitched over the railing of the
       balcony"
    4: set to a certain pitch; "He pitched his voice very low"
    5: sell or offer for sale from place to place [syn: peddle,
       monger, huckster, hawk, vend, pitch]
    6: be at an angle; "The terrain sloped down" [syn: slope,
       incline, pitch]
    7: heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is slanting"
       [syn: cant, cant over, tilt, slant, pitch]
    8: erect and fasten; "pitch a tent" [syn: pitch, set up]
    9: throw or hurl from the mound to the batter, as in baseball;
       "The pitcher delivered the ball" [syn: deliver, pitch]
    10: hit (a golf ball) in a high arc with a backspin
    11: lead (a card) and establish the trump suit
    12: set the level or character of; "She pitched her speech to
        the teenagers in the audience" [syn: gear, pitch]

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.
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   2. To light; to settle; to come to rest from flight.
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            The tree whereon they [the bees] pitch. --Mortimer.
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   3. To fix one's choise; -- with on or upon.
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            Pitch upon the best course of life, and custom will
            render it the more easy.              --Tillotson.
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   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.
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   Pitch and pay, an old aphorism which inculcates ready-money
      payment, or payment on delivery of goods. --Shak.
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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.
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   2. Fig.: To darken; to blacken; to obscure.
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            The welkin pitched with sullen could. --Addison.
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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.
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   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.
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   3. To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as
      an embankment or a roadway. --Knight.
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   4. To fix or set the tone of; as, to pitch a tune.
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   5. To set or fix, as a price or value. [Obs.] --Shak.
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   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]
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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.
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            He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith.
                                                  --Ecclus.
                                                  xiii. 1.
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   2. (Geol.) See Pitchstone.
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   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.
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Pitch \Pitch\, n.
   1. A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand;
      as, a good pitch in quoits.
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   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.
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   2. (Cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball
      pitches or lights when bowled.
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   3. A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation
      or depression; hence, a limit or bound.
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            Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down
            Into this deep.                       --Milton.
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            Enterprises of great pitch and moment. --Shak.
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            To lowest pitch of abject fortune.    --Milton.
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            He lived when learning was at its highest pitch.
                                                  --Addison.
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            The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends.
                                                  --Sharp.
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   4. Height; stature. [Obs.] --Hudibras.
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   5. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down.
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   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.
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   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.
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   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.
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   8. (Mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a
      share of the ore taken out.
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   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.
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   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[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 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.
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Dip \Dip\, n.
   1. The action of dipping or plunging for a moment into a
      liquid. "The dip of oars in unison." --Glover.
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   2. Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line;
      slope; pitch.
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   3. a hollow or depression in a surface, especially in the
      ground.
      [PJC]

   4. A liquid, as a sauce or gravy, served at table with a
      ladle or spoon. [Local, U.S.] --Bartlett.
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   5. A dipped candle. [Colloq.] --Marryat.
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   6. A gymnastic exercise on the parallel bars in which the
      performer, resting on his hands, lets his arms bend and
      his body sink until his chin is level with the bars, and
      then raises himself by straightening his arms.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   7. In the turpentine industry, the viscid exudation, which is
      dipped out from incisions in the trees; as, virgin dip
      (the runnings of the first year), yellow dip (the runnings
      of subsequent years).
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   8. (A["e]ronautics) A sudden drop followed by a climb,
      usually to avoid obstacles or as the result of getting
      into an airhole.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   9. a liquid, in which objects are soaked by dipping; e.g., a
      parasiticide or insecticide solution into which animals
      are dipped (see sheep-dip).
      [PJC]

   10. a sauce into which foods are dipped to enhance the
       flavor; e. g., an onion dip made from sour cream and
       dried onions, into which potato chips are dipped.
       [PJC]

   11. a pickpocket. [slang]
       [PJC]

   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.
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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.)