hatch

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An opening, as in the deck of a ship, in the roof or floor of a building, or in an aircraft.
2. n. The cover for such an opening.
3. n. A hatchway.
4. n. Nautical A ship's compartment.
5. n. The hinged rear door of a hatchback.
6. n. A floodgate.
7. idiom. down the hatch Slang Drink up. Often used as a toast.
8. v. To emerge from or break out of an egg.
9. v. To produce (young) from an egg.
10. v. To cause (an egg or eggs) to produce young.
11. v. To devise or originate, especially in secret: hatch an assassination plot.
12. n. The act or an instance of hatching.
13. n. The young hatched at one time; a brood.
14. v. To shade by drawing or etching fine parallel or crossed lines on.
15. n. A fine line used in hatching.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A half-door, or a door with an opening over it; a grated or latticed door or gate; a wicket.
2. n. A grate or frame of cross-bars laid over an opening in a ship's deck; hence, any cover of an opening in a ship's deck. A hatch accidentally turned upside down, or dropped in the hold of the vessel, is superstitiously regarded as an omen of bad luck.
3. n. An opening, generally rectangular, in a ship's deck, for taking in or discharging the cargo, or for affording a passage into the interior of the ship; a hatchway. The fore-hatch is generally just forward of the foremast, the main-hatch forward of the mainmast, and the after-hatch between the main- and mizzenmasts.
4. n. Hence Any similar opening, as in the floor of a building, or a cover placed over it.
5. n. An opening made in a mine, or made in searching for a mine.
6. n. A rack for hay.
7. n. A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
8. n. A bedstead.
9. n. A hollow trap to catch weasels and other animals.
10. n. Under close confinement; in servitude.
11. To close with or as with a hatch.
12. To cause to develop in and emerge from (an egg) by incubation or other natural process, or by artificial heat; cause the developed young to emerge from (an egg).
13. To contrive or plot, especially secretly; form by meditation, and bring into being; originate and produce: as, to hatch mischief; to hatch heresy.
14. To be hatched, as the eggs of birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, etc.: as, the eggs hatch in two weeks, in the water, under ground, etc.
15. To come forth from or out of the egg: as, the chicks hatch naked in ten days.
16. n. A brood; as many young birds as are produced at one time, or by one incubation.
17. n. The number of eggs incubated at one time; a clutch.
18. n. The act of hatching; also, that which is hatched, in either sense of that word.
19. To chase; engrave; mark with cuts or lines.
20. Specifically, in drawing, engraving, etc., to shade by means of lines; especially, to shade with lines crossing one another. See hatching and cross-hatching.
21. To lay in small and numerous bands upon a ground of different material: as, laces of silver hatched on a satin ground.
22. n. A shading line in drawing or engraving.

Wiktionary

1. n. A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
2. n. A trapdoor.
3. n. An opening in a wall at window height for the purpose of serving food or other items. A pass through.
4. n. A small door in large mechanical structures and vehicles such as aircraft and spacecraft often provided for access for maintenance.
5. n. A opening through the deck of a ship or submarine.
6. n. slang A gullet.
7. v. transitive To close with a hatch or hatches.
8. v. intransitive (of young animals) To emerge from an egg.
9. v. intransitive (of eggs) To break open when a young animal emerges from it.
10. v. transitive To incubate eggs; to cause to hatch.
11. v. transitive To devise. (hatch a plan)
12. n. poultry A group of birds that emerged from eggs at a specified time.
13. n. The phenomenon, lasting 1-2 days, of large clouds of mayflies appearing in one location (to mate, having reached maturity).
14. n. informal As in the phrase "hatched, matched, and dispatched." A birth, the birth records (in the newspaper).
15. v. transitive To shade an area of a drawing or diagram with fine parallel lines, or with lines which cross each other: cross-hatch.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To cross with lines in a peculiar manner in drawing and engraving. See hatching.
2. v. obsolete To cross; to spot; to stain; to steep.
3. v. To produce, as young, from an egg or eggs by incubation, or by artificial heat; to produce young from (eggs).
4. v. To contrive or plot; to form by meditation, and bring into being; to originate and produce; to concoct
5. v. To produce young; -- said of eggs; to come forth from the egg; -- said of the young of birds, fishes, insects, etc.
6. n. The act of hatching.
7. n. Development; disclosure; discovery.
8. n. The chickens produced at once or by one incubation; a brood.
9. n. A door with an opening over it; a half door, sometimes set with spikes on the upper edge.
10. n. A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
11. n. A flood gate; a sluice gate.
12. n. Scot. A bedstead.
13. n. 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.
14. n. (Mining) An opening into, or in search of, a mine.
15. v. To close with a hatch or hatches.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. shading consisting of multiple crossing lines
2. n. a movable barrier covering a hatchway
3. v. devise or invent
4. v. sit on (eggs)
5. n. the production of young from an egg
6. v. inlay with narrow strips or lines of a different substance such as gold or silver, for the purpose of decorating
7. v. draw, cut, or engrave lines, usually parallel, on metal, wood, or paper
8. v. emerge from the eggs