▪ I. pitcher1
(ˈpɪtʃə(r))
Forms: α. 3–5 picher, 4–6 pycher, (4 -ere), 5–6 pychar, (5 -are), (6 pitchaer, pytcher, pitchard), 6– pitcher; β. 4–5 pecher, 5 -ir, 5–6 Sc. -ar.
[ME. picher, pecher, a. OF. pichier (12th c.), picier, pechier, picher (mod.F. pichet, dial. picher, pichier, petier, Gascon pichey, Valencian pitxer, It. picchiere):—pop.L. type *piccāri-um, in med.L. picārium, bicārium: see beaker. From L. also OHG. pechari, pehhar, behhari drinking-cup (Ger. becher), whence app. It. ˈpecchero.]
1. a. A large vessel usually of earthenware, with a handle (or two ears) and usually a lip, for holding and pouring out liquids; a jug; a jug-shaped or vase-shaped vessel; spec. in Ceramics, fired clay or shards used in the manufacturing process.
Now, in general use somewhat of a literary archaism, but locally applied to ‘various specific kinds of earthenware vessels’, differentiated in size or material from ‘jug’ (see Eng. Dial. Dict.); in some localities a milk-jug; in U.S. applied to a bedroom jug or ewer; in Scotland often to a large earthenware jar with two ears, in which drinking-water is kept; in some districts of Scotl. to a vessel of tinned iron, as a milk can.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 427/247 For a lof and a picher wyn: Mi wyf me sende ech day. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10748 She offred for hym to þe auter, Ful of wyne, a pecher. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 39 Fulle þi Pechir of þin farsure. c 1440 Partonope 3857 A pycher he had full of water. 1470 Burgh. Rec. Prestwick 7 May (Maitl. Cl.) 17 A cop of quhat pechar he plessis. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 14 None can a pytcher tourne to a sylver pece. 1533 More Apol. 167 Wyth some propleme pulled out of a peny pycher. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings xvii. 14 The meell in the pitcher shall not be spent, & the oyle in y⊇ cruse shall not fayll. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 49 As for a pitchaer, euery bodye may..sette..in the open strete. 1598 Florio, Pitero, an earthen pot or potsheard or pitchard. 1608–9 Middleton Widow v. i. 139 Broken cruises and pitchers without ears. 1771 J. Wedgwood Let. 13 Jan. (1965) 101, I have been..busy..in makeing a general review of all my experiment pitchers. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 775 There the pitcher stands A fragment, and the spoutless teapot there. 1888 M. E. Braddon Fatal Three i. v, Quaintly-shaped pitchers of bright colours were ranged on china brackets along the walls. 1964 H. Hodges Artifacts i. 20 Broken or spoilt pottery is commonly used, and while the term grog is general amongst all potters to denote the addition of fired clay, some potters also use the terms pitchers and sherds. a 1977 Harrison Mayer Ltd. Catal. 14/1 Pitchers, fired, broken or scrap pottery. Biscuit pitchers have various uses when crushed or ground. |
| local. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk. 327 Pitchers, earthenware vessels of the finer kinds, common china included. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., The pitcher is always made of coarse brown earthenware (cloam). If of finer ware, or china, it is a jug. 1897 Flandrau Harvard Episodes 182 The orator calms himself with ice-water from the bedroom pitcher. |
b. Prov. pitchers have ears (with pun on ear n.1 3 and 8); i.e. beware, there may be persons listening or overhearing: in the form little pitchers have wide or long ears (etc.) said in reference to children. the pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last (etc.): said of a long-continued course of success (or impunity), ending at length in failure (or punishment).
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 53 Aucyd your children, small pitchers haue wide eares. 1591 Greene Art Conny Catch. ii. (1592) 15 Yet at last so long the pitcher goeth to the brooke, that it commeth broken home. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iv. 52 Not in my house Lucentio, for you know Pitchers haue eares, and I haue manie seruants. 1826 Scott Woodst. xxii, The pitcher goes oft to the well—. 1883 Pall Mall G. 3 Oct. 3/2 The pitcher, however, has gone once too often to the well, and yesterday..the panorama caught fire in earnest, and was reduced to ashes. 1886 Miss Tytler Buried Diamonds xiii, Surely Miss Gray, knowing that little pitchers have ears, would have corrected the mistake. |
2. Bot. A leaf, or a part of one, modified into the form of a pitcher (see pitcher-plant): = Ascidium 2. (In quot. 1797, a part of a petal.)
| 1797 tr. Linnæus' Fam. Plants I. 381 Petals..gibbous without a base, excavated within into a pitcher. 1845 R. Chambers Vestiges (ed. 4) 201 The pitcher, as this is called, is not a new organ, but simply the metamorphosis of a leaf. 1857 Henfrey Bot. §101 Pitchers (ascidia) are structures of the form indicated by their name, produced by peculiar modes of development of the petiole, the blade, or of both together. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. vi. 97 The pitchers of Nepenthes possess extraordinary power of digestion. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as pitcher-like, pitcher-shaped adjs.; † pitcher-man, a man addicted to drinking, a toper; † pitcher-meat, potable food, drink; pitcher-mould, a terra-cotta mould in which the bodies of earthenware pitchers or other vessels were formerly made; so pitcher-moulding, the operation of casting in a pitcher-mould; pitcher-nose (see quot.); † pitcher-praise, ? compliment by drinking one's health; † pitcher-souled a., stupid, stolid; pitcher-vase, a vase of the form of a pitcher. See also pitcher-house, -plant.
| 1830 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. (1863) 314 A *pitcher-like cream jug. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 480 The order [Marcgraviaceæ] is chiefly interesting for the curious pitcher-like bracts which some of their genera exhibit. |
| 1694 Motteux Rabelais iv. i, The Travellers were all honest Topers, true *Pitcher-men. 1738 Poor Robin (N.), Boon blades, true pitcher-men. |
| 1551 R. Ascham Let. to E. Raven 14 May, Wks. (1815) 366 The best physician in the world, because he gives him *pitcher-meat enough. |
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Supp., *Pitcher Nose, said of a faucet with a bent down lip. |
| 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. v. 195 So Don Diego Garcia of Par-edes, Hath *Pitcher-praise, and double health his meed is. |
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 155 *Pitcher-shaped leaves. |
| a 1739 Jarvis Quix. ii. iii. xv, He looks like a *pitcher-souled fellow [alma de cántaro]. |
▪ II. pitcher2
(ˈpɪtʃə(r))
[f. pitch v.1 + -er1.]
I. One who pitches.
1. a. Harvesting. One who pitches the hay or sheaves to the loader on a cart, wagon, or rick.
| a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1752) 217 It is good husbandry to have two pitchers to one loader in the field. 1840 Tait's Mag. VII. 513 What loads that tall pitcher is lifting to the waggon-top! a 1847 Eliza Cook Song of Haymakers i, The pitchers, and rakers, and merry haymakers. |
b. In various industries, a workman who pitches, sets, or places something: see quots. Also, a market porter.
| 1865 J. T. F. Turner Slate Quarries 15 The finished slates are then taken by the ‘pitchers’, and carried..to the show-yard. There they count and pitch them. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Pitchers,..loaders in the pit, and men who take up and relay the rails in the workings and long-wall faces. 1891 Scott. Leader 21 Jan. 4 [A man] employed as a stone pitcher at Camphill Water Works. 1966 New Statesman 7 Oct. 531/2 The grandmother had been married to a Smithfield meat ‘pitcher’ who had died of cancer. 1970 Times 26 Feb. 10/2 No longer are porters divided into pitchers (the men who carry fruit in), plain porters (who carry it out) and stand men (who work inside warehouse or shop). |
c. A street vendor who pitches a stall at a definite place or occupies a ‘pitch’: cf. pitch n.2 11.
| 1896 C. Booth Life & Labour of People VII. iii. ii. 261 The pitcher..transforms his barrow, which on its way through the streets has displayed nothing but boxes and loose boards, into a full-blown market stall, while the barrow of the coster is so arranged as to display its stock at all times. 1896 Daily News 21 Nov. 5/1 He claimed to be a ‘coster’, but if he is anything he is a ‘pitcher’. |
2. A player who pitches or delivers a ball, etc., in various games; esp. in Baseball, the player that stands in the space called the pitcher's box, near the centre of the diamond, and pitches or delivers the ball to the batter.
| 1845, 1867 [see balk n.1 5 b]. 1870 Emerson Misc. Papers, Plutarch Wks. (Bohn) III. 347 They are like the baseball players, to whom the pitcher, the bat, the catcher, and the scout are equally important. 1872 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 604 The object of the pitcher is to get the ball in the hole. 1885 E. L. Didier in Harper's Mag. Apr. 722/2 He was one of the most famous pitchers in Virginia, and always used the heaviest quoits. 1902 R. Connor Sky Pilot iv, In the pitcher's box he puzzled the Porcupines till they grew desperate. 1948 Chicago Daily News 4 June 36/8 Claude Passeau's job with the Cubs is to tutor young pitchers throughout the Chicago farm system. 1949 Lafayette Alumnus (Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.) 24 Oct. 1/2 By crashing in he ruined innumerable would-be pass plays getting the pitcher for losses averaging 9 yards. 1974 Post-Herald (Birmingham, Alabama) 29 June A 14/3 Lane gave the Tigers a 2–0 lead with a two-run homer in the second innings off losing pitcher Kevin Kobel. 1978 Verbatim Feb. 2/2 A ballplayer who is not an infielder, outfielder or pitcher, and is thus doomed to be a catcher, wears ‘the tools of ignorance’, catcher's gear. |
II. Something pitched, or used for pitching.
3. An iron bar for making holes in the ground, as for setting stakes or hop-poles: = pitch n.2 7 a.
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 199 A Frame of six Poles let into the Ground with an Iron Pitcher or Crow. 1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. ii. 553 The hole previously made by an iron bar, called a hop-pitcher. |
4. local. A cutting, rod, or stake planted in the ground in order to take root; cf. pitch n.2 7 b.
e.g. A bough or rod of willow, poplar, or elder, so planted, esp. in making a hedge (South of Eng.); a cutting of an apple-tree set in the ground, or a tree grown from such a cutting (W. Eng., Pembr., Ireland).
| 1780 A. Young Tour Irel. II. 203 A common practice here in planting orchards, is to set cuttings, three or four feet long, half way in the ground..they call them pitchers. 1785 in Young's Ann. Agric. IV. 245 Withy plants, which in this county [Som.] are very useful for stakes (or pitchers as they are called) for making hedges. 1843 J. Smith Forest Trees 156 Irish pitcher..is a very fine standard [apple-tree]. 1886 [see pitch n.2 7]. |
5. A stone used for paving, e.g. the small flints or pebbles used in paving yards, etc.; also the brick-shaped granite ‘setts’ used for crossings, and sometimes for streets. See pitch v.1 5 b.
| 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. iv. xxii. (ed. 2) 503 Besides the ordinary cubes and pitchers for paving, a considerable quantity of granite is cut and sold for kerbs. 1866 Faversham Gaz. 27 Jan., The new stones required for this work will be 254 tons of pitchers, 25 tons of curb. 1897 Standard 17 Apr., The comparative merits of granite pitchers, so-called macadam, asphalte, and wood paving. |
6. Various dialect or local uses: e.g. the flat stone or piece of wood pitched in hop-scotch, or at a mark or hole in various games; the marble with which a boy aims. See Eng. Dial. Dict.
▪ III. pitcher3 rare—0.
[f. pitch v.2 + -er1.]
One who pitches, who covers or caulks with pitch.
| 1611 Cotgr., Goildronneur, a pitcher, trimmer, or tighter of ships. |
▪ IV. pitcher4
repr. a vulgar or colloq. pronunciation of picture n.
| 1916 [see humdinger 1]. 1931 Amer. Speech Oct. 46 Moom pitcher for moving picture. 1936 Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) vii. 352 On the vulgar level amateur is always amachoor, and picture is pitchur or pitcher. 1977 J. Wambaugh Black Marble (1978) vii. 99 She do look somethin like that dumpy consti-pated broad in the pitcher. |