hatch Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the production of young from an egg
    hatching.
  2. noun shading consisting of multiple crossing lines
    crosshatch; hachure; hatching.
  3. noun a movable barrier covering a hatchway
  4. verb emerge from the eggs
    • young birds, fish, and reptiles hatch
  5. verb devise or invent
    think up; think of; dream up; concoct.
    • He thought up a plan to get rich quickly
    • no-one had ever thought of such a clever piece of software
  6. verb inlay with narrow strips or lines of a different substance such as gold or silver, for the purpose of decorating
  7. verb draw, cut, or engrave lines, usually parallel, on metal, wood, or paper
    • hatch the sheet
  8. verb sit on (eggs)
    incubate; brood; cover.
    • Birds brood
    • The female covers the eggs

WordNet

Hatch transitive verb
Etymology
F. hacher to chop, hack. See Hash.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Hatched ; present participle & verbal noun Hatching
Definitions
  1. To cross with lines in a peculiar manne 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 transitive verb
Etymology
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. .
Definitions
  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 intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To produce young; -- said of eggs; to come forth from the egg; -- said of the young of birds, fishes, insects, etc.
Hatch noun
Definitions
  1. The act of hatching.
  2. Development; disclosure; discovery. Shak.
  3. The chickens produced at once or by one incubation; a brood.
Hatch noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  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.
Hatch transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To close with a hatch or hatches.
    'T were not amiss to keep our door hatched. Shak

Webster 1913