Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Hatch?

\Hatch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Hatched}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Hatching}.] [F. hacher to chop, hack. See {Hash}.] 1. To cross with lines in a peculiar manner in drawing and engraving. See {Hatching}. Shall win this sword, silvered and hatched. --Chapman. Those hatching strokes of the pencil. --Dryden. 2. To cross; to spot; to stain; to steep. [Obs.] His weapon hatched in blood. --Beau. & Fl.
\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. ???.] 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\, v. i. To produce young; -- said of eggs; to come forth from the egg; -- said of the young of birds, fishes, insects, etc.
\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\, n. [OE. hacche, AS. h[ae]c, cf. haca the bar of a door, D. hek gate, Sw. h["a]ck 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 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\, v. t. To close with a hatch or hatches. 'T were not amiss to keep our door hatched. --Shak.