hatch¹ /hach/

1. A half-door
2. A small gate (dialect)
3. The covering of a hatchway
4. A hatchway

To close as with a hatch

hatchˈback noun

(a car with) a sloping rear door which opens upwards

hatch beams plural noun

Timber balks across a hatch on which the hatch covering planks rest

hatch boat noun

A kind of half-decked fishing-boat

hatch coamings same as coamings (see coaming).

hatchˈway noun

An opening with a hinged or sliding door in a deck, floor, wall or roof

down the hatch (informal)

Said when about to drink something, esp alcohol, meaning ‘your health’, ‘cheers’

under hatches

1. Below deck, esp in confinement
2. Hidden, out of sight
3. In servitude or a depressed state
4. Dead

hatch² /hach/

1. To bring out from the egg
2. To breed
3. To originate, develop or concoct (eg a plan)

1. To bring young from the egg
2. To come from the egg
3. To develop into young
4. To develop

1. The act of hatching
2. Brood hatched

hatchˈer noun

hatchˈery noun

A place for artificial hatching, esp of fish eggs

hatchˈling noun

A bird or reptile newly hatched

count one's chickens before they are hatched see under chick¹

hatches, matches and dispatches (informal)

Newspaper announcements of births, marriages and deaths

hatch³ /hach/

To mark with fine (usu diagonal) lines, incisions, or inlaid or applied strips

hatchˈing noun

Shading in fine lines

• squeak
• squeaked
• squeaker
• squeakeries
• squeakers
• squeakery
• squeakier
• squeakiest
• squeakily
• squeakiness
• squeakinesses
• squeaking
• squeakingly
• squeakings
• squeaks
• squeak through
• squeaky
• squeaky clean
• squeal
• squealed
• squealer
• squealers
• squealing
• squealings
• squeals