▪ I. pitched, ppl. a.1
(pɪtʃt)
Also † pight (paɪt).
[Pa. pple. of pitch v.1 q.v. The form pight (in senses 1, 2) has been obs. since c 1600.]
† 1. Fixed in the ground, staked; set in anything; adorned or set with jewels. Obs.
| α 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 207 A pyȝt coronne ȝet wer þat gyrle. 1584 in Descr. Thames (1758) 63 Rowte Wears, Pight Wears, Foot Wears. |
| β 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 46 Tyed was she fast vnto a pitched stake. |
2. Set in orderly array for fighting: said of a battle which has been planned and of which the ground has been chosen beforehand; a regular battle as distinguished from a skirmish or casual encounter; also pitched field.
| α 1549–62 Sternhold & H. Ps. xxvii. 3 In battell pight if they will try I trust in God for ayde. 1596 Bp. W. Barlow Three Serm. ii. 85 The soldier which neuer saw a pight field. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 412 Fitly is the life of man compared vnto a pight battell. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 832 The martiall prowesse of this Earle in the pight field. |
| β 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 503 To the entent to giue him battaile in a pitched field, and so to make a finall ende of his intended conquest. 1634 Peacham Compl. Gent. (title-p.), A Description of the order of a Maine Battaile or Pitched Field. a 1653 Gouge Comm. Heb. xi. 32 David was never put to flight in any pitcht-battle. 1830 Scott Demonol. x. 396 That magic flag, which has been victorious in two pitched fields. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. ii 47 In this year..nine pitched battles..were fought with the heathens. |
3. Paved with stones set in place, whether cobbles, granite ‘randoms’ or ‘setts’: see pitch v.1 9 c.
| 1611 Coryat Crudities 23 A plaine pitched walke, sub die, that is, under the open ayre. 1696 Lond. Gaz. No. 3175/4 To be Let a good large Inn,..with a large pitch'd Court. c 1830 Pract. Treat. Roads 8 (Libr. Usef. Kn., Husb. III), One party contending that a pitched foundation is necessary to make a substantial and good road. 1890 Daily News 16 May 7/1 Maintenance..of footways at the sides of main roads..whether such footways were flagged, pitched, asphalted, gravelled, or otherwise constructed, as well as of pitched crossings over those roads. |
† 4. fig. Set or fixed (mentally); determined, resolved. Obs. rare.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. i. 67 When I disswaded him from his intent, And found him pight to doe it. 1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. iii. iii. lxxiii, My pitchèd end Was for to prove the immortality Of humane souls. |
5. Said of a market where the goods are pitched in bulk (pitch v.1 7), not sold by sample.
| 1813 T. Davis Agric. Wilts. Gloss., Pitched Market, where the corn is exposed for sale as in Salisbury, Devizes, and Warminster, and not sold by sample. |
6. Thrown in order to fall on a particular place, delivered. (Also with adverbs.)
| 1871 Baily's Monthly Mag. Aug. 290 He bowled a very great number of long hops, and a considerable number of pitched-up balls to the leg stump. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 8 May 3/2 One disastrous bump, baffling all calculation, that may happen to it off a pitched-up shot. 1904 Daily Chron. 12 May 7/3 Both batsmen scored fairly regularly in front of the wicket by driving any over-pitched ball. |
7. [partly f. pitch n.2] With defining word: Having a pitch of specified kind or magnitude (high, low, etc.): see high-pitched, low-pitched. a. Of a roof or building, or of a plough (pitch n.2 21, 24 c and e).
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 119 Yet are the roofes high pitcht. 1793 Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2) IV. 8 A small deep-pitched, double-breasted plough. 1902 Daily Chron. 29 Oct. 7/1 The open lofty-pitched oak roof. |
b. Having a specified musical pitch (n.2 23).
| 1622–1898 [see low-pitched 1]. 1748 [see high-pitched 1]. 1880 V. Lee Stud. Italy iv. iii. 169 A natural law of music makes the highest pitched voice invariably the most important. |
▪ II. pitched, ppl. a.2
(pɪtʃt)
Also Sc. 5 pykked, 6 pikit.
[f. pitch v.2 + -ed1.]
Smeared, covered, saturated, or otherwise treated with pitch.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 809 Into a picced [v.r. pitched] potte he wol hem glene. 1600 Nashe Summer's Last Will in Hazl. Dodsley VIII. 46 Their gargarisms, clysters, and pitch'd-cloths. 1634 W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 56 A long coarse coate, to keepe better things from the pitched ropes and plankes. 1875 Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome lix. (1877) 472 He condemned them to be burnt, wrapped in pitched cloth, in his own gardens. |
| β 1483 Cath. Angl. 278/1 Pykked, bituminatus. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. ii. 54 The pikit bargis of fyr fast can thring. |