'Pitch and toss' definitions:

Definition of 'Pitch and toss'

From: GCIDE
  • Pitch \Pitch\, n.
  • 1. A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand; as, a good pitch in quoits. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. (Cricket) That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation or depression; hence, a limit or bound. [1913 Webster]
  • Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down Into this deep. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • Enterprises of great pitch and moment. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • To lowest pitch of abject fortune. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • He lived when learning was at its highest pitch. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
  • The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends. --Sharp. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Height; stature. [Obs.] --Hudibras. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. A descent; a fall; a thrusting down. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 8. (Mining) The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]

Words containing 'Pitch and toss'