Pitchfork

//ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    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).
  2. 2
    a long-handled hand tool with sharp widely spaced prongs for lifting and pitching hay wordnet
  3. 3
    A similar fork with slightly more and heavier tines, used for mucking stalls and pitching soiled bedding into a wagon or manure spreader.

    "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."

  4. 4
    Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers). broadly, informal
  5. 5
    A tuning fork. rare

    "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 […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    To toss or carry with a pitchfork. transitive

    "The hay was soon pitchforked onto the wagon."

  2. 2
    lift with a pitchfork wordnet
  3. 3
    To throw suddenly. figuratively, transitive

    "We have taken an age-old country, and we have suddenly, in 30 years, pitchforked it into the middle of the factory system."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch + fork.

Etymology 2

From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch + fork.

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