pitchfork
See also: Pitchfork
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch + fork.
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
editpitchfork (plural pitchforks)
- An agricultural tool comprising a fork with sparse, light tines, attached to a long handle, used for pitching hay (especially loose hay) high up onto a stack (as on a wagon or haystack, or into a haymow).
- A similar fork with slightly more and heavier tines, used for mucking stalls and pitching soiled bedding into a wagon or manure spreader.
- 1979, Nellie Eileen Musson, Mind the Onion Seed: Black "roots" Bermuda: Presented During Bermuda's First Heritage Week, May, 1979:
- After my second illness, being too old for “piggy-back rides”, I generally sat in 'Resting Nuke' on a seat naturally formed in a low branch of a cedar, watching relatives down in the bay with pitchforks furiously digging out long black slithery "cockworms" from the muddy sands of Sinky Bay.
- (casual, loosely) Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers).
- (rare) A tuning fork.
- 1988, Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick, Masters of the 5-String Banjo: In Their Own Words and Music, page 400:
- I went around with a pitchfork [tuning fork] in my pocket, and I'd hit it whenever I thought of it, and I developed perfect pitch […]
Coordinate terms
editDerived terms
editTranslations
editfarm tool with tines
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Verb
editpitchfork (third-person singular simple present pitchforks, present participle pitchforking, simple past and past participle pitchforked)
- (transitive) To toss or carry with a pitchfork.
- The hay was soon pitchforked onto the wagon.
- (transitive, figurative) To throw suddenly.
- 1925, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, The Parliamentary Debates, Official Report:
- We have taken an age-old country, and we have suddenly, in 30 years, pitchforked it into the middle of the factory system.
Further reading
edit- Category:pitchfork on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
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- en:Tools