Pitchforkname

• 1

  A surname.

pitchforknoun/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.

  • 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.
• 3

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

• 4

  An angry mob; the power or effects of such a mob.

  • The city council was facing the pitchforks once the public had realized what the new ordinance entailed.
• 5

  rareA tuning fork.

  • 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 […]

pitchforkverb/ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/

• 1

  To toss or carry with a pitchfork.

  • The hay was soon pitchforked onto the wagon.
• 2

  To throw suddenly.

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