What is "pitch"

Dip \Dip\, n.

1. The action of dipping or plunging for a moment into a liquid. ``The dip of oars in unison.''
   --Glover.

2. Inclination downward; direction below a horizontal line; slope; pitch.

3. a hollow or depression in a surface, especially in the ground.

4. A liquid, as a sauce or gravy, served at table with a ladle or spoon. [Local, U.S.]
   --Bartlett.

5. A dipped candle. [Colloq.]
   --Marryat.

6. A gymnastic exercise on the parallel bars in which the performer, resting on his hands, lets his arms bend and his body sink until his chin is level with the bars, and then raises himself by straightening his arms.

7. In the turpentine industry, the viscid exudation, which is dipped out from incisions in the trees; as, virgin dip (the runnings of the first year), yellow dip (the runnings of subsequent years).

8. (A["e]ronautics) A sudden drop followed by a climb, usually to avoid obstacles or as the result of getting into an airhole.

9. a liquid, in which objects are soaked by dipping; e.g., a parasiticide or insecticide solution into which animals are dipped (see sheep-dip).

10. a sauce into which foods are dipped to enhance the flavor; e. g., an onion dip made from sour cream and dried onions, into which potato chips are dipped.

11. a pickpocket. [slang]

    Dip of the horizon (Astron.), the angular depression of the seen or visible horizon below the true or natural horizon; the angle at the eye of an observer between a horizontal line and a tangent drawn from the eye to the surface of the ocean.

    Dip of the needle, or Magnetic dip, the angle formed, in a vertical plane, by a freely suspended magnetic needle, or the line of magnetic force, with a horizontal line; -- called also inclination.

    Dip of a stratum (Geol.), its greatest angle of inclination to the horizon, or that of a line perpendicular to its direction or strike; -- called also the pitch.

"resinous substance, wood tar," late 12c., pich, from Old English pic "pitch," from a Germanic borrowing (Old Saxon and Old Frisian pik, Middle Dutch pik, Dutch pek, Old High German pek, German Pech, Old Norse bik) of Latin pix (genitive picis) "pitch," which according to Watkins is from a PIE root *pik- "pitch" (cognates: Greek pissa, Lithuanian pikis, Old Church Slavonic piklu "pitch"), but according to Pokorny this is from the same PIE root as pine (n.). The English word was applied to pine resins from late 14c. Pitch-black is attested from 1590s; pitch-dark from 1680s.

c.1200, "to thrust in, fasten, settle," probably from an unrecorded Old English *piccean, related to prick (v.). The original past tense was pight. Sense of "set upright," as in pitch a tent (late 13c.), is from notion of "driving in" the pegs. Meaning to incline forward and downward" is from 1510s. Meaning "throw (a ball)" evolved late 14c. from that of "hit the mark." Musical sense is from 1670s. Of ships, "to plunge" in the waves, 1620s. To pitch in "work vigorously" is from 1847, perhaps from farm labor. Related: Pitched; pitching.

1520s, "something that is pitched," from pitch (v.1). Meaning "act of throwing" is attested from 1833. Meaning "act of plunging headfirst" is from 1762; sense of "slope, degree, inclination" is from 1540s; musical sense is from 1590s; but the connection of these is obscure. Sales pitch in the modern commercial advertising sense is from 1943, American English, perhaps from the baseball sense.

"to cover with pitch," Old English pician, from the source of pitch (n.2).

Etymology 1 n. 1 A sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; sap. 2 A dark, extremely viscous material remaining in still after distilling crude oil and tar. 3 (context geology English) pitchstone vb. 1 To cover or smear with pitch. 2 To darken; to blacken; to obscure. Etymology 2

n. 1 A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. 2 (senseid en the act of pitching a baseball)(context baseball English) The act of pitching a baseball. 3 (context sports English) The field on which cricket, soccer, rugby or hockey is played. In '''cricket''', the pitch is in the centre of the field; see '''cricket pitch'''. 4 An effort to sell or promote something. 5 The distance between evenly spaced objects, e.g. the teeth of a saw, the turns of a screw thread, or letters in a monospace font. 6 The angle at which an object sits. 7 More specifically, the rotation angle about the transverse axis. 8 A level or degree. 9 (context aviation English) A measure of the degree to which an aircraft's nose tilts up or down. 10 (context aviation English) A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller. 11 (context nautical English) The measure of extent to which a nautical vessel rotates on its athwartships axis, causing its bow and stern to go up and down. Compare with roll, yaw and heave. 12 The place where a busker performs. 13 An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader. 14 A point or peak; the extreme point or degree of elevation or depression; hence, a limit or bound. vb. 1 (senseid en to throw)(context transitive English) To throw. 2 (senseid en baseball: to throw the ball toward home plate)(context transitive or intransitive baseball English) To throw (the ball) toward home plate. 3 (context intransitive baseball English) To play baseball in the position of pitcher. 4 (context transitive English) To throw away; discard. 5 (context transitive English) To promote, advertise, or attempt to sell. 6 (context transitive English) To deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind. 7 (context transitive English) To assemble or erect (a tent). 8 (context intransitive English) To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp. 9 (context ambitransitive aviation or nautical English) To move so that the front of an aircraft or ship goes alternatively up and down. 10 (context transitive golf English) To play a short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin. 11 (context intransitive cricket English) To bounce on the playing surface. 12 (context intransitive Bristol of snow English) To settle and build up, without melting. 13 To alight; to settle; to come to rest from flight. 14 To fix one's choice; with ''on'' or ''upon''. 15 To plunge or fall; especially, to fall forward; to decline or slope. 16 To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway. 17 To set or fix, as a price or value. 18 (label en transitive card games slang) To discard a card for some gain. Etymology 3

n. 1 (context music English) The perceived frequency of a sound or note. 2 (context music English) In an a cappella group, the singer responsible for singing a note for the other members to tune themselves by. vb. 1 To produce a note of a given pitch. 2 To fix or set the tone of.

1. n. the property of sound that varies with variation in the frequency of vibration

2. (baseball) the throwing of a baseball by a pitcher to a batter [syn: delivery]

3. a vendor's position (especially on the sidewalk); "he was employed to see that his paper's news pitches were not trespassed upon by rival vendors"

4. promotion by means of an argument and demonstration [syn: sales talk, sales pitch]

5. degree of deviation from a horizontal plane; "the roof had a steep pitch" [syn: rake, slant]

6. any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue [syn: tar]

7. a high approach shot in golf [syn: pitch shot]

8. an all-fours game in which the first card led is a trump [syn: auction pitch]

9. abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other conveyance); "the pitching and tossing was quite exciting" [syn: lurch, pitching]

10. the action or manner of throwing something; "his pitch fell short and his hat landed on the floor"

1. v. throw or toss with a light motion; "flip me the beachball"; "toss me newspaper" [syn: flip, toss, sky]

2. move abruptly; "The ship suddenly lurched to the left" [syn: lurch, shift]

3. fall or plunge forward; "She pitched over the railing of the balcony"

4. set to a certain pitch; "He pitched his voice very low"

5. sell or offer for sale from place to place [syn: peddle, monger, huckster, hawk, vend]

6. be at an angle; "The terrain sloped down" [syn: slope, incline]

7. heel over; "The tower is tilting"; "The ceiling is slanting" [syn: cant, cant over, tilt, slant]

8. erect and fasten; "pitch a tent" [syn: set up]

9. throw or hurl from the mound to the batter, as in baseball; "The pitcher delivered the ball" [syn: deliver]

10. hit (a golf ball) in a high arc with a backspin

11. lead (a card) and establish the trump suit

12. set the level or character of; "She pitched her speech to the teenagers in the audience" [syn: gear]

Pitch may refer to:

• Pitch (resin), a viscous substance produced by plants or formed from petroleum
• Pitch (card game) (or "High Low Jack"), an American trick-taking card game
• Sales pitch, a line of talk that attempts to persuade someone or something
  • Elevator pitch, a very short sales presentation, allegedly short enough to be made during an elevator ride
  • Pitch (filmmaking), a proposal for a film

Pitch is a perceptual property of sounds that allows their ordering on a frequency-related scale, or more commonly, pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies. Pitch can be determined only in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. Pitch is a major auditory attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness, and timbre.

Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property; it is a subjective psychoacoustical attribute of sound. Historically, the study of pitch and pitch perception has been a central problem in psychoacoustics, and has been instrumental in forming and testing theories of sound representation, processing, and perception in the auditory system.

Pitch is a name for any of a number of viscoelastic polymers. Pitch can be natural or manufactured, derived from petroleum, coal tar or plants. Various forms of pitch may also be called tar, bitumen or asphalt. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Some products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.

Pitch was traditionally used to help caulk the seams of wooden sailing vessels (see shipbuilding). Pitch was also used to waterproof wooden containers, and in the making of torches. Petroleum-derived pitch is black in colour, hence the adjectival phrase, "pitch-black".

Pitch is an upcoming American drama television series set to be broadcast on Fox starting September 22, 2016, and the first scripted television program of its kind to be officially associated with Major League Baseball. The series was commissioned on May 10, 2016.

In baseball, a pitch is the act of throwing a baseball toward home plate to start a play. The term comes from the Knickerbocker Rules. Originally, the ball had to be literally "pitched" underhand, as with pitching horseshoes. Overhand throwing was not allowed until 1884.

The biomechanics of pitching have been studied extensively. The phases of throwing include windup, early cocking, late cocking, early acceleration, late acceleration, deceleration, and follow-through.

Pitchers throw a variety of pitches, each of which has a slightly different velocity, trajectory, movement, hand position, wrist position and/or arm angle. These variations are introduced to confuse the batter in various ways, and ultimately aid the defensive team in getting the batter or baserunners out. To obtain variety, and therefore enhance defensive baseball strategy, the pitcher manipulates the grip on the ball at the point of release. Variations in the grip cause the seams to "catch" the air differently, thereby changing the trajectory of the ball, making it harder for the batter to hit.

The selection of which pitch to use can depend on a wide variety of factors including the type of hitter who is being faced; whether there are any base runners; how many outs have been made in the inning; and the current score.

In rock climbing and ice climbing, a pitch is a steep section of a route that requires a rope between two belays, as part of a climbing system. Standard climbing ropes are between 50 and 80 metres long, so a pitch is always shorter, between two convenient ledges if possible; longer routes are multi-pitch, requiring the re-use of the rope each time. In free climbing, pitch refers to classification by climbers of the difficulty of ascent on certain climbing routes.

In advanced climbing or mountaineering, another definition of pitch is not restricted by the length of the rope. On easier terrain or when moving quickly, the length of a pitch can be extended by means of simul climbing, effectively combining several pitches together by means of a running belay. Speed climbers will often state that they completed a long route with a reduced number of pitches, effectively calling a pitch any time a fixed belay was used or a changeover in the lead occurred. This definition is used loosely, since the length of a pitch is only limited by the nature of the terrain and the confidence of the individual climbing party.

Tree NP - Double Cross - 1.jpg|Old Woman formation in Joshua Tree National Park is climbed in a single pitch Tree - Wonderland of Rocks South Astro Dome.jpg|South Astro Dome formation in Joshua Tree National Park is climbed in two pitches Tree - Moosedog Tower 1.jpg|Moosedog Tower in Joshua Tree National Park is climbed in three pitches southwest.jpg| Seneca Rocks is usually done in four pitches. Dome.jpg| Pywiack Dome is usually done in five pitches. Meadows - Fairview Dome from Daff Dome descent - 3.JPG| Fairview Dome originally done in twelve pitches. Capitan 01.JPG|| The Nose on El Capitan has 31 pitches.

A pitch is a concise verbal (and sometimes visual) presentation of an idea for a film or TV series generally made by a screenwriter or film director to a film producer or studio executive in the hope of attracting development finance to pay for the writing of a screenplay.

"Pitch" is a contraction of the phrase " sales pitch". A pitch is used throughout different stages of production, such as casting and distribution, as well as to urge film producers to further fund a project. Filmmakers who devise a pitch tend to manufacture a production package, which is handed out to each potential investor during the pitch. The package contains the basic information for the filmmaker's project, such as a plot synopsis and budgeting values. Sometimes, filmmakers will produce an independent pitch trailer as a part of the package to help potential financiers better visualize the project and the filmmaker's vision.

Though pitches are usually made on the basis of a full script or teleplay, animated productions for both film and television are often pitched on the basis of storyboards alone. For example, the animated television show Phineas and Ferb was pitched from a storyboard. Co-founders of the project, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, needed to convince overseas executives for The Walt Disney Company to greenlight the series, so they drew a storyboard and recorded it as a reel. They then mixed it and dubbed it over with sound effects, voices, and narrative, then sent the recording to the executives, who accepted it.

Television pitches can also be devised by the network or company that produces the program. Certain networks are pitched the idea of including a character in a series in order to boost ratings. Such pitches have been used with "Oliver" in The Brady Bunch and "Luke" on Growing Pains. Networks also try to force their ideas on series' producers through their pitches, though their approach is business-oriented and their ideas are generally not favored by writers and viewers. In 1992, the crew of the animated series Rugrats was approached by Nickelodeon, which pitched the idea of a Rugrats Hanukkah special. Paul Germain, co-creator of the series, responded by suggesting a passover special, which he dubbed a "funny idea." After they closed production for that special, they began considering the Hanukkah special and eventually created it in 1996 as the episode " A Rugrats Chanukah."

Pitch (or "High Low Jack") is an American trick-taking card game derived from the English game of All Fours (Seven Up). Historically, Pitch started as "Blind All Fours", a very simple All Fours variant that is still played in England as a pub game. The modern game involving a bidding phase and setting back a party's score if the bid is not reached came up in the middle of the 19th century and is more precisely known as Auction Pitch or Setback. Whereas All Fours started as a two-player game, Pitch is most popular for three to five players. Four can play individually or in fixed partnerships, depending in part on regional preferences. Auction Pitch is played in numerous variations that vary the deck used, provide methods for improving players' hands, or expand the scoring system. Some of these variants gave rise to a new game known as Pedro or Cinch.

A pitch or a sports ground is an outdoor playing area for various sports. The term pitch is most commonly used in British English, while the comparable term in American and Canadian English is playing field or sports field.

In most sports the official term is field of play, although this is not regularly used by those outside refereeing/umpiring circles. The field of play generally includes out-of-bounds areas that a player is likely to enter while playing a match, such as the area beyond the touchlines in association football and rugby or the sidelines in American and Canadian football, or the " foul territory" in baseball.

The surface of a pitch is most commonly composed of sod (grass), but may also be artificial turf, sand, clay, gravel, concrete, or other materials. A playing field on ice may be referred to as a rink, for example an ice hockey rink, although rink may also refer to the entire building or, in the sport of curling, to either the building or a particular team.

In the sport of cricket, the cricket pitch refers not to the entire field of play, but to the section of the field on which batting and bowling take place in the centre of the field. The pitch is prepared differently from the rest of the field, to provide a harder surface for bowling.

A pitch is often a regulation space, as in an association football pitch.

The term level playing field is also used metaphorically to mean fairness in non-sporting human activities such as business where there are notional winners and losers.

Pitch is a 1997 Canadian documentary created by Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice, featuring themselves as two young filmmakers attending the Toronto Film Festival to pitch a film concept to various celebrities.

Their film idea, titled "The Dawn", concerns a Mafia don who goes for a hernia operation but gets a sex change instead. During the 1996 Toronto fest, they approach Roger Ebert, Norman Jewison (at a packed press conference), Eric Stoltz (leaving a limo), Al Pacino, and others without much success. On a roll, they leave Toronto for Hollywood, getting advice from Arthur Hiller and Neil Simon and finding an agent who expresses interest in their pitch. The film was shown at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival.

The film features songs by the Toronto band Phono-Comb.

Pitch is the number of characters and spaces in one inch of running text, that is characters per inch (abbreviated cpi). The pitch is most often used as a measurement of font size of typewriters as well as printers.

The relation between pitch font size and typographic font size is usually inverse: a 12 pitch typewriter font is equal in height to 10 point typographic font, while a 10 pitch typewriter font is equal in height to 12 point typographic font. Though this relation is not obligatory: a smaller in the x-height 12 pitch font can have the body height equal to a 10 pitch font, thus creating a text with increased line spacing.

The most widespread fonts in typewriters are 10 and 12 pitch, called Pica and Elite respectively. There may be other font styles with various width: condensed or compressed (17–20 cpi), italic or bold (10 pitch), enlarged (5–8 cpi) and so on.