Hatch

Hatch (hăch), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hatched (hăcht); 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. √12.] 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. hæc, cf. haca the bar of a door, D. hek gate, Sw. häck 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 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.