▪ I. pitchfork, n.1
(ˈpɪtʃfɔːk)
Forms: 5 pych-, pycche-, 6 pyche-, pytche-, pitche-, 6– pitchfork, etc.
[Also (in earlier use) pickfork, dial. pikefork, app. orig. f. pick n.1, pike n.1; afterwards associated with pitch v.1, from its use in pitching sheaves, etc.]
A long-handled fork with two sharp prongs, for lifting and pitching hay, straw, or sheaves; sometimes applied to a short-handled fork for lifting dung, breaking clods, etc. Phr. to rain pitchforks, to rain hard.
| 1452 Maldon, Essex, Court Rolls Bundle 31 No. 1 Ipsum percussit cum baculo vocato pychforke. 1530 Palsgr. 254/2 Pytche forke, fovrche fiere. c 1540 R. Morice in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 24 A gentilman..toke a fyrre bushe on a forke, or a pitchefork. c 1600 Day Begg. Bednall Gr. iv. iii, Let me dye like a Dog on a Pitch-fork. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2046/1 Between 2 and 3000..some with Musquets, some with Pistols, some with Pikes, and some with Pitch⁓forks and Sythes. 1738 Swift Pol. Conversat. 52 She wears her Cloaths, as if they were thrown on her with a Pitch⁓Fork. 1815 D. Humphreys Yankey in Eng. 55 I'll be even with you, if it rains pitchforks—tines downwards. 1850 J. R. Planché Island of Jewels ii. iii. 31 Rain cats and dogs, or pitchforks perpendicular, The sky's not mine, and need'nt be particular. 1852 Roget Thesaurus §348 To rain..in torrents, rain cats and dogs, rain pitchforks. 1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 77 Outside it was raining pitchforks. 1940 M. Fishback Time for Quick One 77 It's raining cats and dogs And pitchforks and assorted frogs. |
| attrib. 1788 Barker in Phil. Trans. LXXVIII. 413 About as thick as a pitch-fork shaft. |
▪ II. ˈpitchfork, n.2
[f. pitch n.2 23 + fork n., after pitch-pipe.]
A tuning-fork, used for setting the pitch of a tune or instrument.
| 1881 Broadhouse Mus. Acoustics 406 The Tuning-fork, originally called the Pitch-fork. 1892 Daily News 23 Dec. 5/2 The introduction of new tunes called for the use of the sonorous little instrument called a ‘pitch-fork’. |
▪ III. ˈpitchfork, v.
[f. pitchfork n.1]
1. trans. To throw or cast with, or as with, a pitchfork; to pitch forcibly or roughly.
| 1837 Times 22 June, Resolved to drive the nuisance from their den, They'll probably pitchfork it back again. 1870 Observer 9 July, The meal is brought and pitchforked to the diners [lions]. 1873 Mrs. Whitney Other Girls vi. 74 Reminding..possibly of a hay-load; being so very much pitchforked up into heaps behind. |
b. fig.; esp. to thrust (a person) forcibly or unsuitably into some position or office.
| 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. (1855) 14 To achieve an entrance into St. Stephen's, you might submit..to be pitchforked in..by the priests. 1848 W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. I. 245 To have the descendants of Henri IV. pitchforked out of the country. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 68 Whether he was pitchforked into the service or rose meritoriously is now a matter of indifference. |
2. To stab or attack with a pitchfork.
| 1854 Leech Pict. Life & Char. (1855) 22 Vowing that he will pitchfork Mr. B. if he comes ‘galloperravering’ over his fences. |
Hence ˈpitchforked ppl. a., -forking vbl. n.
| 1891 Daily News 9 Nov. 3/1 This reckless pitchforking of unnecessary furniture. 1899 Dundee Advertiser 10 Oct. 4 The pitchforked man..would fall the just prey to all the generation of ladder-climbers. |