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.