pitchfork
Pronunciation: /ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/
The English word “pitchfork” has 7 meanings listed here.
noun
- An agricultural hand 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.
- Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers).
- An angry mob; the power or effects of such a mob.
- A tuning fork.
verb
Etymology
From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch (verb) + fork (i.e. "a fork used for pitching or throwing material, like hay"). The figurative sense (noun sense 4) is an allusion to a crowd of farmers wielding their farm tools as weapons.
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.