mispitch

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ pitch

Verb

mispitch (third-person singular simple present mispitches, present participle mispitching, simple past and past participle mispitched)

1. To sing or play one or more notes at the wrong pitch.
   • 1995, T. M. Perry, Music Lessons for Children with Special Needs, page 64:

     It is so easy for over-anxious singers to squeak, to mispitch a note, or to forget the words, that the teacher must display absolute faith in his or her pupils' ability to produce something of value.

   • 2004, Eric Clarke, Nicholas Cook, Empirical Musicology, page 24:

     My first attempt goes none too well: I sing the wrong mnemonic (though right pitch) in line two and mispitch the leap between lines four and five.

   • 2012, Catherine Tackley, Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, page 73:

     The first two solos on record are probably by Pee Wee Erwin; the third, by Bunny Berigan, starts off strongly, but he appears to mispitch and end up on the wrong harmonic.

   • 2016, Kim Walker, Spirited Wind Playing: The Performance Dimension, page 230:

     Ideally, you purposefully mispitch a low note that is full of harmonics and use a powerful articulation to provoke harmonics to sound.

2. To give the wrong angle or pitch to.
   • 2010, James F. Manwell, Jon G. McGowan, Anthony L. Rogers, Wind Energy Explained: Theory, Design and Application, page 396:

     Such an approach, if successful, will maximize rotor energy capture in spite of poorly understood rotor performance, icing, mispitched blades, etc.

3. To pitch badly or in error (any sense).
   1. To do a poor job of promoting or selling someone or something, or to attemp such promotion at the wrong place or time.
      • 1984, City of London (England). Records Office, Corporation of London Records Office, Betty R. Masters, Chamber Accounts of the Sixteenth Century, page 5:

        Fines [Receipts] Received for the city's part of persons breaking and disobeying customs, ordinances and laudable acts ordained for the commonwealth of the city, and for fines taken of persons committing offences within the market of the city by way of forestalling and regrating, and for wares hawked in the streets, and for wares and merchandises foreign bought and sold within the liberties of the city, 'mispitching' of cloths in inns out of the common markets, breaking of ordinances in fellowships, making of unlawful wares, breaking of the assize of bread, annoyances done in the river of Thames with filth and ordure, for burying of jakes (jaques) within the liberties of the city, and for the admission of persons to occupy the feat of cobbling and botchers within the city and liberties

      • 2003, Trevor Merriden, Rollercoaster: The Turbulent Life and Times of Vodafone and Chris Gent, page 63:

        In the world of inflated telecoms takeovers at that time, it was not inconceivable that a deflated Vodafone share price could follow a mispitched bid and that Vodafone itself could become of interest to other parties.

      • 2017, Lyn Dowland, Winder Path:

        "Oh bloody hell..." Sandi began quietly, seeming to think she'd mispitched it and rushed it.

   2. To set up a tent or camp badly (poor construction, bad location, etc.)
      • 1880, B. Solymos, Desert Life: Recollections of an Expedition in the Soudan, page 82:

        Nearly as bad as the air overnight in these European nineteenth-century tents, which sicken our best armies, was the vile smell in which I found one evening our camp mispitched after eleven hours' ride.

   3. To discard incorrectly.
      • 1995, David Silver, Tales Out of School, page 116:

        I see , he's playing off the trumps hoping someone will mispitch ... aha , look ! East has discarded a small heart

   4. To throw badly.
      • 2021, University of the District of Columbia, “The plate umpire may suspend play because of darkness”, in Course Hero:

        At the plate the catcher is responsible for catching pitches, keeping mispitched balls in front of the plate, calling pitches that are normally done through hand signals, picking off runners, and they are considered the leaders of the field.

Noun

mispitch (countable and uncountable, plural mispitches)

1. The act or process of mispitching (any sense).
   • 1955, Canadian Bandmaster, page 40:

     The solo Cornet here was spoiled by mispitch and there was a little ragged playing in 3rd and wth bars before No. 19.

   • 1976, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service., Military Mail: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Postal Facilities, Mail, and Labor Management, page 41:

     We have a high incidence of mispitches by the USPS which further adds to the delay.

   • 2000, Al Barkow, Golf's Golden Grind: A History of the PGA Tour:

     Where a home run or a sixty-yard forward pass may have the captivating properties of a well-hit golf shot, and many on-lookers have played or still participate in those games, they depend on the machinations of others — a mispitch at the waist, a fleet, sure-handed receiver, or a lax defender. The golfer, though, stands alone.