pitched battle, a

Idioms  

1. An intense conflict, as in Their disagreement turned into a pitched battle between the nurses and the physicians' assistants. This term, dating from about 1600, originally alluded to a military battle in which the array of forces and battleground are predetermined (as opposed to a hasty skirmish).

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Example Sentences

Amelia had been raised to believe that existence was a pitched battle, a series of challenges to be brooked.

From Seattle Times

By midafternoon east of Gaza City on Monday, the scene at the fence resembled a pitched battle — a chaotic panorama of black smoke, wailing sirens, streams of tear gas and recurring gunfire.

From New York Times

As Lieutenant Summers had explained to the boys, even in pitched battle a good deal of powder and shot was spent often without anybody being injured.

From Project Gutenberg

So, before they had gone any great distance toward the sounds of firing, which had now increased to a point that showed that they were in the neighborhood of something very like a pitched battle, a general engagement, they slowed down to a walk and waited to see what would happen.

From Project Gutenberg

He shrank at first from provoking the senate by a wanton attack on the neighbouring kingdom which they had just created; his design was rather to draw Adherbal into hostilities which would lead to a pitched battle, a certain victory, the disappearance of the last of Micipsa's race and the union of the two crowns.

From Project Gutenberg