pitch vs strike

pitch

verb
  • To throw away; discard. 

  • To fix or set the tone of. 

  • To play baseball in the position of pitcher. 

  • To play a short, high, lofty shot that lands with backspin. 

  • To set or fix. 

  • To deliver in a certain tone or style, or with a certain audience in mind. 

  • To fix or place a tent or temporary habitation; to encamp. 

  • To attack, or position or assemble for attack. 

  • To darken; to blacken; to obscure. 

  • To cover or smear with pitch. 

  • To throw. 

  • To promote, advertise, or attempt to sell. 

  • To assemble or erect (a tent). 

  • To move so that the front of an aircraft or boat goes alternatively up and down. 

  • To bounce on the playing surface. 

  • To settle and build up, without melting. 

  • To discard for some gain. 

  • To throw (the ball) toward a batter at home plate. 

  • To fix one's choice. 

  • To set, face, or pave with rubble or undressed stones. 

  • To produce a note of a given pitch. 

  • To plunge or fall; especially, to fall forward; to decline or slope. 

noun
  • A descent; a fall; a thrusting down. 

  • A measure of the angle of attack of a propeller. 

  • The angle at which an object sits. 

  • The standard to which a group of musical instruments are tuned or in which a piece is performed, usually by reference to the frequency to which the musical note A above middle C is tuned. 

  • In an a cappella group, the singer responsible for singing a note for the other members to tune themselves by. 

  • An area on a campsite intended for occupation by a single tent, caravan or similar. 

  • The degree to which a vehicle, especially a ship or aircraft, rotates on such an axis, tilting its bow or nose up or down. Compare with roll, yaw, and heave. 

  • The field on which cricket, soccer, rugby, gridiron or field hockey is played. (In cricket, the pitch is in the centre of the field; see cricket pitch.) (Not often used in the US or Canada, where "field" is the preferred word.) 

  • A point or peak; the extreme point of elevation or depression. 

  • A level or degree, or (by extension), a peak or highest degree. 

  • The most thrust-out point of a headland or cape. 

  • The height a bird reaches in flight, especially a bird of prey preparing to swoop down on its prey. 

  • The distance between evenly spaced objects, e.g. the teeth of a saw or gear, the turns of a screw thread, the centres of holes, or letters in a monospace font. 

  • The act of pitching a baseball. 

  • A sticky, gummy substance secreted by trees; sap. 

  • The point where a declivity begins; hence, the declivity itself; a descending slope; the degree or rate of descent or slope; slant. 

  • A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. 

  • The field of battle. 

  • A section of a climb or rock face; specifically, the climbing distance between belays or stances. 

  • That point of the ground on which the ball pitches or lights when bowled. 

  • The perceived frequency of a sound or note. 

  • A dark, extremely viscous material remaining in still after distilling crude oil and tar. 

  • Pitchstone. 

  • An effort to sell or promote something. 

  • The limit of ground set to a miner who receives a share of the ore taken out. 

  • A vertical cave passage, only negotiable by using rope or ladders. 

  • The place where a busker performs, a prostitute solicits clients, or an illegal gambling game etc. is set up before the public. 

  • An area in a market (or similar) allocated to a particular trader. 

  • A person's or animal's height. 

  • Prominence; importance. 

strike

verb
  • To impinge upon. 

  • To hit. 

  • To give, as a blow; to impel, as with a blow; to give a force to; to dash; to cast. 

  • To create an impression. 

  • To cut off (a mortar joint, etc.) even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle. 

  • To affect by a sudden impression or impulse. 

  • To sound by percussion, with blows, or as if with blows. 

  • To haul down or lower (a flag, mast, etc.) 

  • To make a sudden impression upon, as if by a blow; to affect with some strong emotion. 

  • To balance (a ledger or account). 

  • To dismantle and take away (a theater set; a tent; etc.). 

  • To hit upon, or light upon, suddenly. 

  • To cause or produce by a stroke, or suddenly, as by a stroke. 

  • To become attached to something; said of the spat of oysters. 

  • To stroke or pass lightly; to wave. 

  • To act suddenly, especially in a violent or criminal way. 

  • To impress, seem or appear (to). 

  • To capitulate; to signal a surrender by hauling down the colours. 

  • To level (a measure of grain, salt, etc.) with a straight instrument, scraping off what is above the level of the top. 

  • To discover a source of something, often a buried raw material such as ore (especially gold) or crude oil. 

  • To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate. 

  • To touch; to act by appulse. 

  • To manufacture, as by stamping. 

  • To make and ratify. 

  • To deliver a quick blow or thrust; to give blows. 

  • To cause to sound by one or more beats; to indicate or notify by audible strokes. Of a clock, to announce (an hour of the day), usually by one or more sounds. 

  • To cause to ignite by friction. 

  • To delete or cross out; to scratch or eliminate. 

  • To set off on a walk or trip. 

  • To score a goal. 

  • To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate. 

  • To punish; to afflict; to smite. 

  • To carry out a violent or illegal action. 

  • To unfasten, to loosen (chains, bonds, etc.). 

  • To stop working as a protest to achieve better working conditions. 

noun
  • A nibble on the bait by a fish. 

  • In an option contract, the price at which the holder buys or sells if they choose to exercise the option. 

  • The strike plate of a door. 

  • A cancellation postmark. 

  • An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence. 

  • The primary face of a hammer, opposite the peen. 

  • An instrument with a straight edge for levelling a measure of grain, salt, etc., scraping off what is above the level of the top; a strickle. 

  • A status resulting from a batter swinging and missing a pitch, or not swinging at a pitch when the ball goes in the strike zone, or hitting a foul ball that is not caught. 

  • The status of being the batsman that the bowler is bowling at. 

  • The act of knocking down all ten pins in on the first roll of a frame. 

  • An old English measure of corn equal to the bushel. 

  • A blow or application of physical force against something. 

  • A work stoppage (or otherwise concerted stoppage of an activity) as a form of protest. 

  • The compass direction of the line of intersection between a rock layer and the surface of the Earth. 

  • The discovery of a source of something. 

  • A puddler's stirrer. 

How often have the words pitch and strike occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )