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• pitcher
  pitcher

  noun

  a container, usually with a handle and spout or lip, for holding and pouring liquids.
• Pitcher
  Pitcher

  noun

  Molly Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, 1754–1832, American Revolutionary heroine.

pitcher

¹ American  

[pich-er] / ˈpɪtʃ ər /

noun

1. a container, usually with a handle and spout or lip, for holding and pouring liquids.

2. Botany.

   1. a pitcherlike modification of the leaf of certain plants.

   2. an ascidium.

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pitcher ² American  

[pich-er] / ˈpɪtʃ ər /

noun

1. a person who pitches.

2. Baseball. the player who throws the ball to the opposing batter.

3. Also called number seven iron.  Golf. a club with an iron head the face of which has more slope than a mashie but less slope than a pitching niblick.

4. sett.

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Pitcher ³ American  

[pich-er] / ˈpɪtʃ ər /

noun

1. Molly Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, 1754–1832, American Revolutionary heroine.

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pitcher ¹ British  

/ ˈpɪtʃə /

noun

1. a large jug, usually rounded with a narrow neck and often of earthenware, used mainly for holding water

2. botany any of the urn-shaped leaves of the pitcher plant

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pitcher ² British  

/ ˈpɪtʃə /

noun

1. baseball the player on the fielding team who pitches the ball to the batter

2. a granite stone or sett used in paving

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pitcher Idioms  

1. see little pitchers have big ears.

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Other Word Forms

• pitcherlike
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of pitcher¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English picher, from Old French pichier, from Medieval Latin picārium, variant of bicārium beaker

Origin of pitcher²

First recorded in 1700–10; pitch ¹ + -er ¹

Explanation

In baseball or softball, the pitcher is the player who throws the ball to the catcher in an attempt to strike out the batter. Another kind of pitcher is one that holds a liquid, like a pitcher of lemonade. The pitcher is one of the most important players on a team, aiming the pitch so that it stays inside a certain "strike zone," but in a way that entices the batter to swing and miss or not to swing at all. The batter, on the other hand, tries to hit the ball that the pitcher throws, and maybe even to hit a home run. The 18th-century meaning of pitcher was "one who pitches hay into a wagon."

Example Sentences

“Everybody’s all in for fairness,” Mets pitcher Clay Holmes said.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 6, 2026

Choreographed dances, acrobatic tricks, a pitcher on stilts and other antics keep the entertainment flowing.

From Los Angeles Times • May 5, 2026

But in 1981, a rotator cuff injury was a death sentence for a pitcher.

From Los Angeles Times • May 4, 2026

What nobody could have predicted was that Soriano would return in 2026 as a fundamentally different pitcher than the one he had been before.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 25, 2026

Dyedka came out of the house using his walking stick with one hand and carrying a pitcher of water with the other.

From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack

Related Words

• ace
• baseball player
• reliever