Other forms: pitchforks
A pitchfork is a long fork used to lift hay. Lift with a pitchfork, a pitchfork of straw, pitchfork it onto the cart.
The tines are long, few and widely spaced, because hay needs lifting rather than digging — a garden fork would simply cut through it. Torches and pitchforks is the standing joke for an angry mob, from the films rather than from history.
1nounpitchforkA long fork used to lift hay.
“The farmer used a pitchfork to toss hay into the horses' stable.”
pitchfork is a tool.
Middle English pichfork, from pitch, to throw, plus fork — a fork used for pitching hay onto a cart.
Middle English
pichfork
English, today
pitchfork
From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch + fork i.e. "a fork used for pitching or throwing material, like hay". The figurative sense (angry mob or its effects) is an allusion to a crowd of farmers wielding their farm tools as weapons.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA