pinch hitter

noun

: one that pinch-hits

Synonyms of pinch hitter

• replacement
• substitute
• backup

Examples of pinch hitter in a Sentence

the business owners brought in a pinch hitter until a permanent manager could be hired

Recent Examples on the Web

Then with two outs and two runners on in the fifth, pinch hitter Miles Renteria came through with an RBI single for El Dorado. —Lou Ponsi, Oc Register, 25 Feb. 2026

Coming off a good but unspectacular rookie season with the Kansas City Royals, Witt appeared in only five games for Team USA — three as a pinch runner, one as a pinch hitter, one as a defensive replacement. —Ken Rosenthal, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2026

Alex Call appeared as a pinch hitter and failed to hit the ball out of the infield, so the Blue Jays walked Shohei Ohtani (his seventh time reaching base tonight) and Mookie Betts intentionally to load the bases. —Greg Rosenstein, NBC news, 28 Oct. 2025

The club went silently in the bottom of the ninth, with pinch hitters Carlos Narvaez, Rob Refsnyder and Nick Sogard going down 1-2-3. —Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald, 18 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1896, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for pinch hitter

• embitter
• emitter
• outfitter
• remitter
• submitter
• transmitter
• babysitter
• bitter
• critter
• fitter
• fritter
• glitter

Kids Definition

pinch hitter

noun

1

: a baseball player sent in to bat for another especially when a hit is needed

2

: a person called upon to do another's work in an emergency

pinch-hit

(ˈ)pinch-ˈhit

verb