pitchfork

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch + fork.

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. Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers).
4. A 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 […]”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch + fork.

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.”