pitchfork
/ˈpɪtʃfɔːk
/noun
A farm tool with a long handle and two sharp metal prongs, used for lifting hay.He arranged two lines of men with flails, clubs, pitchforks, sickles, and reaping hooks....
- A couple of farm workers had collected pitchforks.
- It does have some decent scenes of horror, including an impaling with a pitchfork and a sickle.
verb [with object and adverbial of direction]
1Lift with a pitchfork: once mixed, the sticky mass is pitchforked up on to the walls
1.1Thrust (someone) suddenly into an unexpected and difficult situation: he was pitchforked into the job for six months...
- A year after he first played for New South Wales here at the SCG, he was pitchforked into the Australia team at 20.
- And being suddenly pitchforked into that select group of classmates after twenty years away from such environment, I immediately felt at home and quickly realized I readily could keep up with the group.
- That at once is pitchforking me into a full review of the whole of the case.
Origin
Late Middle English: from earlier pickfork, influenced by the verb pitch1 (because the tool is used for ‘pitching’ or throwing sheaves on to a stack).
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- swingman
- swingometer
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- swings and roundabouts
- swing set
- swing shift
- swing state
- swing the banjo
- swing the lead
- mendelevium
- Mendel, Gregor Johann
- Mendelian
- Mendelianism
- Mendelian ratio
- Mendelise
- Mendelism
- Mendelist
- Mendelize
- Mendelizing
- Mendelssohn, Felix
- Mendelssohnian
- mender
- Menderes
- mendicancy