pitchfork

Meanings

1. An agricultural 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.
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.

1. To toss or carry with a pitchfork.
2. To throw suddenly.

1. A surname.

Etymology

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