queer someone's pitch

queer someone's pitch

English

Verb

queer someone's pitch

1. (chiefly Britain, idiomatic) To make a task more difficult for someone.
   • 1880, The Era Almanack,

     "Oh, the Mayor's coming, is he?"

     "Yes, but he's very little good. Mayors don't draw as they used; nothing don't draw as it used. The game is pretty well up. What with amateur dramatics, choral unions, and local talent of all sorts, your pitch is queered wherever you go."

   • 2002, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup, Bloomsbury, 2001, p. 45,

     —no question, global buffeting has queered our pitch for growth in many ways, currency down-down, oil prices up-up—