pitched battle

pitched (“prepared”) +‎ battle

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pitched battle (plural pitched battles)

1. (military) A battle which opposing forces anticipate and commit to fighting; a sustained, intense and confrontational fight.

   Synonym: set-piece battle

   Coordinate terms: guerrilla warfare, raid, skirmish, siege

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Have I not in a pitched battle heard / Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?

   • 1834–1838 (date written), Thomas Babington Macaulay, “The Prophecy of Capys”, in Lays of Ancient Rome, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 170:

     That barbarian warriors, led by barbarian chiefs, should win a pitched battle against Greek valor guided by Greek science, seemed as incredible as it would now seem that the Burmese or the Siamese should, in the open plain, put to flight an equal number of the best English troops.

   • 2007, Philip Sabin, Hans van Wees, Michael Whitby, editors, The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare, volume II, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 125:

     In pitched battle the Romans knew that they were unlikely to experience a reverse (Tac. Ann. I.68); when it came, defeat by a foreign enemy was rarely in pitched battle, but was usually as a result of an attack or ambush on an army on the march.

   • 2023 January 9, Andrew E. Kramer, Nicole Tung, “Without Hesitation, Ukraine Goes Toe to Toe With Russia in Bakhmut”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     In an earlier phase of the war, Ukraine’s leadership had been more equivocal about pitched battles like Bakhmut.

2. (by extension) An intense, rancorous argument or confrontation.

   Synonyms: blow-up, brouhaha, shouting match

   • 1889, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 13, in The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe:

     At every post where we changed horses and drivers, we had a pitched battle with the driver for more money than we had been told was the regular rate.

• “pitched battle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.