Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hawker of small wares, as on the streets or at a carnival.
  • noun One who makes aggressive selling or promotional efforts.
  • noun One who delivers commercials on radio or television.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A salesman, especially, one who aggressively markets wares from a street stall, or a carnival or side show act.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an aggressive salesman who uses a fast line of talk to sell something
  • noun someone who travels about selling his wares (as on the streets or at carnivals)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

pitch +‎ man

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Examples

  • The story starts with a pitchman from the Hierarchy offering Illyria all she had in the distant past if she would just do them the favor of killing Liandra and, although it is unspecified, no doubt destroying Bete Noire in the process, which has now been shown to be the center of the psyche of all the rest of the world.

    Quick Hits – Angel, Fallen Angel, All Winners Comics, Destroyer, and More 2009

  • The story starts with a pitchman from the Hierarchy offering Illyria all she had in the distant past if she would just do them the favor of killing Liandra and, although it is unspecified, no doubt destroying Bete Noire in the process, which has now been shown to be the center of the psyche of all the rest of the world.

    08 « August « 2009 « Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009

  • Casting the notoriously uber-capitalistic and over-the-top rocker as a TV-ad lawyer/pitchman is brilliant, but Simmons looks uncomfortable sitting at a table in a scene with solid character actor J.K. Simmons and Bateman.

    Mike Judge tries to “Extract” more workplace comedy » Scene-Stealers 2009

  • It’s a tirade, of course, but here Hirsch, as manic and breathy as any television pitchman, is busy pushing product on every page.

    July « 2006 « Bill Ayers 2006

  • It’s a tirade, of course, but here Hirsch, as manic and breathy as any television pitchman, is busy pushing product on every page.

    The Knowledge Deficit 2006

  • An avid gardener, he was later known as the pitchman for Miracle-Gro plant food.

    Variety.com 2009

  • His wife found Mays -- best known as the pitchman for OxiClean and star of many other TV infomercials -- unconscious in their Florida home, TMZ reports\

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2009

  • Mark Richt as a pitchman is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of execution.

    EDSBS 2008

  • And he cried to Larry King about not being able to work as a "pitchman" to pay that note because he broke his neck in a fall?

    Blogtimore, Hon 2009

  • Mr. Bosley also toured nationally in musicals, including the 1920s evergreen "Showboat," and was a longtime pitchman for Glad trash bags.

    Tom Bosley dies at 83; actor played Howard Cunningham, father on 'Happy Days' Adam Bernstein 2010

Comments

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  • "Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo, OxiClean and ESPN made him a pop-culture icon, died today. He was 50."

    - AP, Billy Mays dies at 50; boisterous TV pitchman, latimes.com, 28 June 2009.

    June 29, 2009

  • "his impossibly dark hair and beard -- a signature style that made him resemble a bear that had fallen into a vat of Just For Men".

    Those obit writers are a laff riot.

    June 29, 2009

  • "Recently, Mays' primacy as pitchman was challenged by Offer 'Vince' Shlomi, a lupine, smart-alecky spokesman for the ShamWow, a rival chamois to Mays' Zorbeez product."

    The discount chamois wars are upon us! Potentially even more absorbing than the heights scaled by the Samurai Shark knife sharpener and the Bay City Slider Station burger machine.

    June 29, 2009

  • I still use my bass-o-matic

    June 29, 2009