Pitched battle

Have I not in a pitched battle heard / Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?

That barbarian warriors, led by barbarian chiefs, should win a pitched battle against Greek valor guided by Greek science, seemed as incredible as it would now seem that the Burmese or the Siamese should, in the open plain, put to flight an equal number of the best English troops.

In pitched battle the Romans knew that they were unlikely to experience a reverse (Tac. Ann. I.68); when it came, defeat by a foreign enemy was rarely in pitched battle, but was usually as a result of an attack or ambush on an army on the march.

In an earlier phase of the war, Ukraine’s leadership had been more equivocal about pitched battles like Bakhmut.

At every post where we changed horses and drivers, we had a pitched battle with the driver for more money than we had been told was the regular rate.