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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pitchfork.

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).

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/
  1. 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).

  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. Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers).

    broadly · informal
  4. An angry mob; the power or effects of such a mob.

    figuratively · in-plural · metonymically
    The city council was facing the pitchforks once the public had realized what the new ordinance entailed.
  5. A tuning fork.

    rare
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/
  1. To toss or carry with a pitchfork.

    transitive
    The hay was soon pitchforked onto the wagon.
  2. To throw suddenly.

    figuratively · transitive
Where this word comes from

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, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.