Hatch
(Hatch), v. t. [OE. hacchen, hetchen; akin to G. hecken, Dan. hekke; cf. MHG. hagen bull; perh.
akin to E. hatch a half door, and orig. meaning, to produce under a hatch. &radic12.]
1. To produce, as young, from an egg or eggs by incubation, or by artificial heat; to produce young from
(eggs); as, the young when hatched. Paley.
As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not.
Jer. xvii. 11.
For the hens do not sit upon the eggs; but by keeping them in a certain equal heat they [the husbandmen]
bring life into them and hatch them.
Robynson (More's Utopia). 2. To contrive or plot; to form by meditation, and bring into being; to originate and produce; to concoct; as,
to hatch mischief; to hatch heresy. Hooker.
Fancies hatched
In silken-folded idleness.
Tennyson. Hatch
(Hatch), v. i. To produce young; said of eggs; to come forth from the egg; said of the young
of birds, fishes, insects, etc.
Hatch
(Hatch), n.
1. The act of hatching.
2. Development; disclosure; discovery. Shak.
3. The chickens produced at once or by one incubation; a brood.
Hatch
(Hatch), n. [OE. hacche, AS. hæc, cf. haca the bar of a door, D. hek gate, Sw. häck coop, rack,
Dan. hekke manger, rack. Prob. akin to E. hook, and first used of something made of pieces fastened
together. Cf. Heck, Hack a frame.]
1. A door with an opening over it; a half door, sometimes set with spikes on the upper edge.
In at the window, or else o'er the hatch.
Shak. 2. A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
3. A flood gate; a sluice gate. Ainsworth.
4. A bedstead. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.
5. An opening in the deck of a vessel or floor of a warehouse which serves as a passageway or hoistway; a
hatchway; also; a cover or door, or one of the covers used in closing such an opening.
6. (Mining) An opening into, or in search of, a mine.
Booby hatch, Buttery hatch, Companion hatch, etc. See under Booby, Buttery, etc. To batten
down the hatches (Naut.), to lay tarpaulins over them, and secure them with battens. To be under
hatches, to be confined below in a vessel; to be under arrest, or in slavery, distress, etc.
Hatch
(Hatch), v. t. To close with a hatch or hatches.
'T were not amiss to keep our door hatched.
Shak. Hatch-boat
(Hatch"-boat`) n. (Naut.) A vessel whose deck consists almost wholly of movable hatches;
used mostly in the fisheries.