Pitchfork

/ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/ · noun

Meaning

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)..

Definitions by Sense

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. A similar fork with slightly more and heavier tines, used for mucking stalls and pitching soiled bedding into a wagon or manure spreader.
3. (casual, loosely) Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers).
4. (rare) A tuning fork.
5. (transitive) To toss or carry with a pitchfork.
6. (transitive, figurative) To throw suddenly.

Example Sentences

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.

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 […]

The hay was soon pitchforked onto the wagon.

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

Synonyms for pitchfork

Antonyms for pitchfork

Related Words

Word Forms

• pitchforks
• pitchforking
• pitchforked

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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