6 entries under this word
v. t. [imp. & p. p. HATCHED (hătcht); p. pr. & vb. n. HATCHING.] [Ger. hecken, aushecken, Dan. hekke, allied to M. H. Ger. hage, buil.]
Sense 1. To produce from eggs by incubation, or by artificial heat; to cause to germinate.
The partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not. Jer. xvii. 11.
Sense 2. To contrive or plot; to form by meditation, and bring into being; to originate and produce; as, to hatch mischief; to hatch heresy. Hooker.
v. i. To produce young; to bring the young to maturity; as, eggs will not hatch without a due degree and continuance of heat.
n. 1. As many chickens as are produced at once, or by one incubation; a brood.
Sense 2. The act of exclusion from the egg.
Sense 3. Development; disclosure; discovery. Shak.
v. t. [Fr. hacher, to chop, hack. See HASH.]
Come, sons of Honor, True Virtue’s heirs, thus hatched with Britain blood. B. & Fl.
n. [A-S. hăca, heca, the bar of a door, D. hek, hedge, gate. Cf. HEDGE.]
Sense 1. A door with an opening over it; a half door, sometimes set with spikes on the upper edge.
Either get thee from the door or sit down at the hatch. Shak.
Sense 2. A frame or weir in a river for catching fish.
Sense 3. A floodgate. Ainsworth.
Sense 4. A bed-frame.
A rude wooden stool, and still ruder hatch, or bed-frame. W. Scott.
Sense 5. The crate or frame of cross-bars laid over the opening in a ship’s deck;—called also hatches or hutch-bars; the lid or cover of the opening in a deck or floor, or into a cellar.
Sense 6. The opening in a ship’s deck or in the floor of a warehouse; the hatchway.
Sense 7. (Mining.) An opening into a mine, or in search of one.
To be under the hatches, to be confined below; to be in distress, depression, or slavery. Locke.
v. t. To close with a hatch. ’Twere not amiss to keep our door hatched. Shak.