Part 302

Pitch"fork`, v. t. To pitch or throw with, or as with, a pitchfork.

He has been pitchforked into the footguards.

G. A. Sala.

Pitch"i*ness (?), n. [From Pitchy.] Blackness, as of pitch; darkness.

Pitch"ing, n. 1. The act of throwing or casting; a cast; a pitch; as, wild pitching in baseball.

2. The rough paving of a street to a grade with blocks of stone. Mayhew.

3. (Hydraul. Eng.) A facing of stone laid upon a bank to prevent wear by tides or currents.

Pitching piece (Carp.), the horizontal timber supporting the floor of a platform of a stairway, and against which the stringpieces of the sloping parts are supported.

Pitch"-ore` (?), n. (Min.) Pitchblende.

Pitch"stone` (?), n. (Geol.) An igneous rock of semiglassy nature, having a luster like pitch.

Pitch"work` (?), n. The work of a coal miner who is paid by a share of his product.

Pitch"y (?), a. [From 1st Pitch.] 1. Partaking of the qualities of pitch; resembling pitch.

2. Smeared with pitch.

3. Black; pitch-dark; dismal. "Pitchy night." Shak.

Pit"e*ous (?), a. [OE. pitous, OF. pitos, F. piteux. See Pity.] 1. Pious; devout. [Obs.]

The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation.

Wyclif.

2. Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender. " piteous of his case." Pope.

She was so charitable and so pitous.

Chaucer.

3. Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. Spenser.

The most piteous tale of Lear.

Shak.

4. Paltry; mean; pitiful. "Piteous amends." Milton.

Syn. -- Sorrowful; mournful; affecting; doleful; woeful; rueful; sad; wretched; miserable; pitiable; pitiful; compassionate.

-- Pit"e*ous*ly, adv. -- Pit"e*ous*ness, n.

Pit"fall` (?), n. A pit deceitfully covered to entrap wild beasts or men; a trap of any kind. Sir T. North.

Pit"fall`ing, a. Entrapping; insnaring. [R.] "Full of . . . contradiction and pitfalling dispenses." Milton.