Crossword clues for pitched battle
pitched battle
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pitch \Pitch\, v. t. [OE. picchen; akin to E. pick, pike.]
To throw, generally with a definite aim or purpose; to cast; to hurl; to toss; as, to pitch quoits; to pitch hay; to pitch a ball.
To thrust or plant in the ground, as stakes or poles; hence, to fix firmly, as by means of poles; to establish; to arrange; as, to pitch a tent; to pitch a camp.
To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones, as an embankment or a roadway.
--Knight.To fix or set the tone of; as, to pitch a tune.
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To set or fix, as a price or value. [Obs.]
--Shak.Pitched battle, a general battle; a battle in which the hostile forces have fixed positions; -- in distinction from a skirmish.
To pitch into, to attack; to assault; to abuse. [Slang]
Battle \Bat"tle\, n. [OE. bataille, bataile, F. bataille battle, OF., battle, battalion, fr. L. battalia, battualia, the fighting and fencing exercises of soldiers and gladiators, fr. batuere to strike, beat. Cf. Battalia, 1st Battel, and see Batter, v. t. ]
A general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; an engagement; a combat.
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A struggle; a contest; as, the battle of life.
The whole intellectual battle that had at its center the best poem of the best poet of that day.
--H. Morley. -
A division of an army; a battalion. [Obs.]
The king divided his army into three battles.
--Bacon.The cavalry, by way of distinction, was called the battle, and on it alone depended the fate of every action.
--Robertson. -
The main body, as distinct from the van and rear; battalia. [Obs.] --Hayward. Note: Battle is used adjectively or as the first part of a self-explaining compound; as, battle brand, a ``brand'' or sword used in battle; battle cry; battlefield; battle ground; battle array; battle song. Battle piece, a painting, or a musical composition, representing a battle. Battle royal.
A fight between several gamecocks, where the one that stands longest is the victor.
--Grose.-
A contest with fists or cudgels in which more than two are engaged; a m[^e]l['e]e.
--Thackeray.Drawn battle, one in which neither party gains the victory.
To give battle, to attack an enemy.
To join battle, to meet the attack; to engage in battle.
Pitched battle, one in which the armies are previously drawn up in form, with a regular disposition of the forces.
Wager of battle. See under Wager, n.
Syn: Conflict; encounter; contest; action.
Usage: Battle, Combat, Fight, Engagement. These words agree in denoting a close encounter between contending parties. Fight is a word of less dignity than the others. Except in poetry, it is more naturally applied to the encounter of a few individuals, and more commonly an accidental one; as, a street fight. A combat is a close encounter, whether between few or many, and is usually premeditated. A battle is commonly more general and prolonged. An engagement supposes large numbers on each side, engaged or intermingled in the conflict.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context military English) A hostile engagement involving sustained, full-scale fighting between opposing forces in close combat. 2 (context idiomatic by extension English) An intense, rancorous argument or confrontation.
WordNet
n. a fierce battle fought in close combat between troops in predetermined positions at a chosen time and place
Wikipedia
A pitched battle or set piece battle is a battle in which both sides choose the fighting location and time, and where either side has the option to disengage either before the battle starts, or shortly after the first armed exchanges.
A pitched battle is not a chance encounter such as a skirmish, or where one side is forced to fight at a time not of their choosing such as happens in a siege. For example, the first pitched battle of the English Civil War, the Battle of Edgehill, was fought when the Royalists chose to move off an escarpment to a less advantageous position so that the Parliamentarians would be willing to fight.
Pitched battles may result from meeting engagement, where — instead of disengaging — the opposing generals choose to reinforce their positions and turn what was initially a skirmish into a pitched battle, as had happened in the Battle of Gettysburg, fought during the American Civil War.
Usage examples of "pitched battle".
Picker and the others would later learn of the sudden and bloody pitched battle that occurred at the landings on the coast and on the shore of Catlin River.
I had learned the basics, but knitting for me was still a pitched battle with knotted thread and slippery needles, not the soothing, dreamy exercise that Jamie and Ian made of i, needles clicketing away in their big hands by the fire, comforting as the sound of crickets on the hearth.
Leonidas had not been seeking parataxis, a pitched battle, with the Antirhionians.
Anyway, there was a pitched battle, defeat, and exile for the Gray Lord.
The more Matrites we kill before we have to fight a pitched battle, the better.
The left flank, of course, as near to the desert as they can get without fighting an actual pitched battle with the Ye-tai.
If you cannot take fifteen shots a minute in a pitched battle, you will be of little use.
Korbolo Dom's army quickly recovered, reforming with as much precision as they could muster, and drove back the Khundryl after more than four hours of pitched battle.
The game was interrupted by a pitched battle - we were overrun, then driven back, then we retook the position, all of which consumed maybe a bell - and lo, someone had walked off with a two hundred pound table in the meantime!
The captain had left right after the failed ambush, for he realized they were unlikely to catch up to the elven raiders, much less engage them in pitched battle.
Sucking on his wounded thumb, the duke toyed in a disordered way with such thoughtsfor all Frekke's claims, Isgrimnur found it damnably hard to think about anything at all while he was carving: the knife and wood seemed at odds, in pitched battle that might elude his vigilance at any moment to slide over into tragedy.
In single combat the mightiest soldier of one army would fight the mightiest soldier of the other army as a substitute for a pitched battle between the entire forces.