hatch
noun
- 1
A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
- 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.”
- 4
A small door in large mechanical structures and vehicles such as aircraft and spacecraft often provided for access for maintenance.
- 5
An opening through the deck of a ship or submarine
- 6
A gullet.
- 7
A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
- 8
A floodgate; a sluice gate.
- 9
A bedstead.
- 10
An opening into, or in search of, a mine.
verb
- 1
To close with a hatch or hatches.
noun
- 1
The act of hatching.
- 2
Development; disclosure; discovery.
- 3
(poultry) A group of birds that emerged from eggs at a specified time.
“These pullets are from an April hatch.”
- 4
(often as mayfly hatch) The phenomenon, lasting 1–2 days, of large clouds of mayflies appearing in one location to mate, having reached maturity.
- 5
A birth, the birth records (in the newspaper) — compare the phrase "hatched, matched, and dispatched."
verb
- 1
(of young animals) To emerge from an egg.
- 2
(of eggs) To break open when a young animal emerges from it.
- 3
To incubate eggs; to cause to hatch.
- 4
To devise.
verb
- 1
To shade an area of (a drawing, diagram, etc.) with fine parallel lines, or with lines which cross each other (cross-hatch).
- 2
To cross; to spot; to stain; to steep.
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