Word.ws English Dictionary

pitched battle

pitched battle noun: a battle which opposing forces anticipate and commit to fighting; a sustained, intense and confrontational fight.

Noun

pitched battle (plural pitched battles)

  1. A battle which opposing forces anticipate and commit to fighting; a sustained, intense and confrontational fight.
    • Have I not in a pitched battle heard / Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • That barbarian warriors, led by barbarian chiefs, should win a pitched battle against Greek valor guided by Greek science, seemed as incredible as it would now seem that the Burmese or the Siamese should, in the open plain, put to flight an equal number of the best English troops.1834–1838 (date written), Thomas Babington Macaulay, “The Prophecy of Capys”, in Lays of Ancient Rome, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 170
    Synonyms:
    set-piece battle
  2. (broadly) An intense, rancorous argument or confrontation.
    • At every post where we changed horses and drivers, we had a pitched battle with the driver for more money than we had been told was the regular rate.1889, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 13, in The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe

pitched battle meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Arabic

pitched battle in Tamil

கடும் சண்டை, நிலைப்புற்ற சண்டை

pitched battle in Kannada

ಘೋರಯುದ್ಧ, ಶಕ್ತಿಯುತವಾದವಾದ

pitched battle in Arabic

pitched battle
معركة ضارية

Examples of pitched battle in a sentence

  • In pitched battle the Romans knew that they were unlikely to experience a reverse (Tac.2007, Philip Sabin, Hans van Wees, Michael Whitby, editors, The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare, volume II, Cambridge...
  • In an earlier phase of the war, Ukraine’s leadership had been more equivocal about pitched battles like Bakhmut.2023 January 9, Andrew E. Kramer, Nicole Tung, “Without Hesitation, Ukraine Goes Toe to Toe With Russia in Bakhmut”, in The New York Times...

Synonyms of pitched battle

Forms of pitched battle

pluralpitched battles

Origin of pitched battle

From pitched (“prepared”) + battle.

Questions about pitched battle

What does pitched battle mean?
Pitched battle means a battle which opposing forces anticipate and commit to fighting; a sustained, intense and confrontational fight.
What is pitched battle in Tamil?
Pitched battle in Tamil is கடும் சண்டை, நிலைப்புற்ற சண்டை. See Pitched battle meaning in Tamil.
How do you use pitched battle in a sentence?
In pitched battle the Romans knew that they were unlikely to experience a reverse (Tac.
What part of speech is pitched battle?
Pitched battle is a noun.
What is the plural of pitched battle?
The plural of pitched battle is pitched battles.

Words near pitched battle in the dictionary

  1. pitched
  2. pitched a tantrum
  3. pitched a tent
  4. pitched and paid
  5. pitched around
  6. pitched battle
  7. pitched battles
  8. pitched camp
  9. pitched in
  10. pitched into
  11. pitched market

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pitched battle (page history and authors); pitched battle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pitched battle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pitched battle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pitched battle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pitched_battle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.