Hatch
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hatch¹
- /hæt͡ʃ/
Rhymes with -ætʃ
Where it comes from
From Middle English hacche, hache, from Old English hæċ, from Proto-West Germanic *hakkju (compare Dutch hek ‘gate, railing’, Low German Heck ‘pasture gate, farmyard gate’), variant of *haggju ‘hedge’. More at hedge.
noun hatches
- A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling. Moving the wardrobe revealed a previously hidden hatch in the ground.
- A trapdoor.
- An opening in a wall at window height for the purpose of serving food or other items. A pass through. The cook passed the dishes through the serving hatch.
- A small door in large mechanical structures and vehicles such as aircraft and spacecraft often provided for access for maintenance. A surprising number of incidents is due to roof hatches being left loose or in the raised position when locomotives return to service after maintenance. On one occasion, a 25kV overhead line was damaged by an open hatch.
- An opening through the deck of a ship or submarine
- A gullet.
- A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
- A floodgate; a sluice gate. The farmers lower down the brook pull up the hatches to let the flood pass.
- A bedstead. It consisted of a rude wooden stool , and still ruder hatch or bed-frame
- An opening into, or in search of, a mine.
verb hatches · hatching · hatched
- To close with a hatch or hatches. 'Twere not amiss to keep our door hatched.
hatch²
- /hæt͡ʃ/
Rhymes with -ætʃ
Where it comes from
From Middle English hacche, hacchen (“to propagate”), from Old English *hæċċan, āhaċċian (“to peck out; hatch”), from Proto-Germanic *hakjaną.
Cognate with German hecken ‘to breed, spawn’, Danish hække (“to hatch”), Swedish häcka (“to breed”); akin to Latvian kakale ‘penis’.
verb hatches · hatching · hatched
- To emerge from an egg. These three chicks hatched yesterday morning.
- To break open when a young animal emerges from it. She was delighted when she heard the crackling sound of the eggs hatching.
- To incubate eggs; to cause to hatch. I'm hatching this mysterious egg I found in the forest.
- To devise (a plot or scheme). World domination was only one of the evil schemes he had hatched over the years.
noun hatches
- The act of hatching.
- Development; disclosure; discovery. There's ſomething in his ſoule? / O'er which his Melancholly ſits on brood, / And I do doubt the hatch, and the diſcloſe / Will be ſome danger, which to preuent / I haue in quicke determination
- A group of birds that emerged from eggs at a specified time. These pullets are from an April hatch.
- The phenomenon, lasting 1–2 days, of large clouds of mayflies appearing in one location to mate, having reached maturity. a. 1947, Edward R. Hewitt, quoted in 1947, Charles K. Fox, Redistribution of the Green Drake, 1997, Norm Shires, Jim Gilford (editors), Limestone Legends, page 104, The Willowemoc above Livington Manor had the largest mayfly hatch I ever knew about fifty years ago.
- A birth, the birth records (in the newspaper). hatch, match, and dispatch
hatch³
- /hæt͡ʃ/
Rhymes with -ætʃ
Where it comes from
From Middle French hacher (“to chop, slice up, incise with fine lines”), from Old French hacher, hachier, from Frankish *hakōn, *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hack”). More at hack.
verb hatches · hatching · hatched
- To shade an area of (a drawing, diagram, etc.) with fine parallel lines, or with lines which cross each other (crosshatch). Those hatching strokes of the pencil.
- To cross; to spot; to stain; to steep. His weapon hatch'd in blood.
Hatch⁴
Where it comes from
English surname from the root of hatch (“gate”).
proper noun
- A surname.
