hatch

plural hatches

1. A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.

   Moving the wardrobe revealed a previously hidden hatch in the ground.

2. A trapdoor.
3. 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.

   1 more example

   A service hatch with sliding shutter is situated at the end of the kitchen next to the dining compartment.

   1950 June, “New Restaurant and Buffet Cars, G.N.R.(I.)”, in Railway Magazine, page 415

4. 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.

   1963 February, “Diesel locomotive faults and their remedies”, in Modern Railways, page 100

5. nauticalAn opening through the deck of a ship or submarine
6. slangA gullet.
7. A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
8. A floodgate; a sluice gate.

   The farmers lower down the brook pull up the hatches to let the flood pass.

   1879, Richard Jeffries, Wild Life in a Southern County

9. ScotlandA bedstead.

   It consisted of a rude wooden stool , and still ruder hatch or bed-frame

   1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC

10. businessAn opening into, or in search of, a mine.

present singular third person hatches · participle present hatching · participle past hatched · past hatched

1. transitiveTo close with a hatch or hatches.

   'Twere not amiss to keep our door hatched.

   c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

present singular third person hatches · participle present hatching · participle past hatched · past hatched

1. intransitiveTo emerge from an egg.

   These three chicks hatched yesterday morning.

2. intransitiveTo break open when a young animal emerges from it.

   She was delighted when she heard the crackling sound of the eggs hatching.

3. transitiveTo incubate eggs; to cause to hatch.

   I'm hatching this mysterious egg I found in the forest.

4. transitiveTo devise (a plot or scheme).

   World domination was only one of the evil schemes he had hatched over the years.

   1 more example

   As for Cersei, pretending to work with her enemies while secretly hatching some grander scheme was pretty much what I expected for the truce going into it.

   2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club

   Synonyms: hatch up

plural hatches

1. The act of hatching.
2. figurativelyDevelopment; 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

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 266

3. poultryA group of birds that emerged from eggs at a specified time.

   These pullets are from an April hatch.

4. oftenThe 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.

   2 more examples

   The major application of the parachute is for mayfly hatches, but it's also useful for midge hatches.

   2004, Ed Engle, Fishing Small Flies, page 118

   Many years the mayfly hatch begins by the time the lake opens in April. Otherwise, expect strong hatches by mid-May. The hatches continue through midsummer.

   2007, John Shewey, On the Fly Guide to the Northwest, page 70

5. informalA birth, the birth records (in the newspaper).

   hatch, match, and dispatch

present singular third person hatches · participle present hatching · participle past hatched · past hatched

1. transitiveTo 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.

   1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   Shall win this sword, silvered and hatched.

   [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC

2. obsoletetransitiveTo cross; to spot; to stain; to steep.

   His weapon hatch'd in blood.

   1619, John Fletcher, “The Humorous Lieutenant”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act I, scene i

1. A surname.