pitchy, a. (adv.)
(ˈpɪtʃɪ)
Also 6 Sc. pikky, pyky.
[f. pitch n.1 + -y.]
1. Full of or abounding in pitch; bituminous, resinous; coated, smeared, soiled, or sticky with pitch; fig. sticky like pitch, thievish. Of a flame: Darkened with smoke, like that of burning pitch.
| 1513 Douglas æneis v. xii. 32 Out thrawis the pikky smok cole blak. Ibid. ix. ii. 97 The tallownit burdis kest a pyky low. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 57 The Pine tree is called holdfast or pitchie tre. 1742 in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. App. ii. 120 The Black, Pitchy, Flinty Rock found immediately over coals. 1845 Whittier Lumbermen viii, Pitchy knot and beechen splinter On our hearth shall glow. 1869 Lecky European Mor. (1877) I. ii. 281 Nero illuminated his gardens during the night by Christians burning in their pitchy shirts. |
| fig. 1660 Eng. Monarchy Freest State in World 7 All publick Monies..passing through the pitchy claws of such State harpies. |
2. Of the nature or consistence of pitch; tenacious, viscid; bituminous.
| 1552 Huloet, Pitchye, or of pytche, piceus. 1589 Nashe Pref. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 7 The vnsauorie sent of the pitchie slime. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. 298 Every thing that thickens the Fluids or reduceth them to a pitchy Condition. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 684 Pitchy hydrate of iron. |
3. Nat. Hist., etc. Of the colour or appearance of pitch; dark-brown inclining to black; piceous. Hence
pitchy-black.
| 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 278 Megatoma serra... Shining pitchy black. 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm III. 779 The chrysalis..is pitchy-brown..inclosed in a white woolly cocoon. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 412 Carex stricta... Glumes in about 8 rows, pitchy, midrib green. 1882 Gd. Words 165 Deep black coals with pitchy lustre. |
4. fig. ‘As black’ or ‘as dark as pitch’; pitch-dark, intensely dark; of darkness, Intense, thick, gross.
| c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxvii. xi, Light of lightnings flash Did pitchy cloudes encleare. a 1592 Greene Selimus Wks. (Grosart) XIV. 261 But let thy pitchie steeds aye draw thy waine, And coale black silence in the world still raigne. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 202 The pitchie night had bereft vs of the conduct of our eyes. 1746 Hervey Medit. (1818) 265 How uncomfortable is deep, pitchy, total darkness. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) xi. 276 Stars shone out like fiery sparks against a pitchy canopy. |
b. Qualifying
black or
dark. (More usually
pitch-dark: see
pitch n.1 5.)
| 1800 Naval Chron. IV. 436 The night being pitchy dark. 1834 Coleridge Table-t. 21 June, Hans Sachse..in describing Chaos, said it was so pitchy dark, that even the very cats ran against each other! 1895 Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk. v. 120 A deep, pitchy-black pool surrounded with rocks. |
c. Morally ‘black’ or defiling; grossly wicked.
| 1612 Dekker If it be not good Wks. 1873 III. 268 Braue pitchy villaines there. 1810 Crabbe Borough vi. 194 The pitchy taint of general vice..you dread the touch. |
5. Comb., as
pitchy-countenanced adj.| 1596 R. L[inche] Diella (1877) 30 How patient then would I endure the smart, Of pitchy countnanc'd dead-doing dart. |