pitchy

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪt͡ʃi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃi

Etymology 1

From Middle English pycchy, pychy, equivalent to pitch +‎ -y.

Adjective

pitchy (comparative pitchier, superlative pitchiest)

1. Of, pertaining to, or resembling pitch.
2. Very dark black; pitch-black.
   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 5, Twelfth Century”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

     Mancunium, Manceaster, what we now call Manchester, spins no cotton […] The Creek of the Mersey gurgles, twice in the four-and-twenty hours, with eddying brine, clangorous with sea-fowl; and is a Lither-Pool, a lazy or sullen Pool, no monstrous pitchy City, and Seahaven of the world!

   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 280:

     In front of me the road became pitchy black as though it was tarred, and I saw a contorted shape lying across the pathway.

   • 1961, Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach, Knopf, page 44:

     To make it worse, something went wrong wit the Glow-worm's lighting system, and the room was in pitchy darkness.

Derived terms

• pitchily
• pitchiness

Etymology 2

From pitch +‎ -y.

Adjective

pitchy (comparative pitchier, superlative pitchiest)

1. (music) Off pitch; out of tune.
   • 2014, Mellonee V. Burnim, Portia K. Maultsby, African American Music, page 381:

     […] “Auto Tune”—digital voice processing initially designed to correct a “pitchy” (out-of-tune) singer's voice.

Anagrams

• phytic