What does "hatch" mean?
A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
Hatch
/hæt͡ʃ/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
- Grammar: hatch is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: access, aeroplane, airplane, angle.
- Useful contrasts: icelandic leggja, abandon, abort.
- Usage evidence: The hen sits on her eggs until they hatch.
How to use "hatch"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "hatch" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "hatch" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "hatch" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "hatch" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "hatch" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "access" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "hatch", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
"Moving the wardrobe revealed a previously hidden hatch in the ground."
- 2 The act of hatching.
- 3 a movable barrier covering a hatchway wordnet
- 4 A trapdoor.
- 5 Development; disclosure; discovery. figuratively
"There's ſomething in his ſoule? / O'er which his Melancholly ſits on brood, / And I do doubt the hatch, and the diſcloſe / Will be ſome danger, which to preuent / I haue in quicke determination"
Show 14 more definitions
- 6 a sloping rear car door that is lifted to open wordnet
- 7 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."
- 8 A group of birds that emerged from eggs at a specified time.
"These pullets are from an April hatch."
- 9 shading consisting of multiple crossing lines wordnet
- 10 A small door in large mechanical structures and vehicles such as aircraft and spacecraft often provided for access for maintenance.
"A surprising number of incidents is due to roof hatches being left loose or in the raised position when locomotives return to service after maintenance. On one occasion, a 25kV overhead line was damaged by an open hatch."
- 11 The phenomenon, lasting 1–2 days, of large clouds of mayflies appearing in one location to mate, having reached maturity. often
"a. 1947, Edward R. Hewitt, quoted in 1947, Charles K. Fox, Redistribution of the Green Drake, 1997, Norm Shires, Jim Gilford (editors), Limestone Legends, page 104, The Willowemoc above Livington Manor had the largest mayfly hatch I ever knew about fifty years ago."
- 12 the production of young from an egg wordnet
- 13 An opening through the deck of a ship or submarine
- 14 A birth, the birth records (in the newspaper). informal
"hatch, match, and dispatch"
- 15 A gullet. slang
- 16 A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
- 17 A floodgate; a sluice gate.
"The farmers lower down the brook pull up the hatches to let the flood pass."
- 18 A bedstead. Scotland
"It consisted of a rude wooden stool , and still ruder hatch or bed-frame"
- 19 An opening into, or in search of, a mine.
Verb
- 1 To close with a hatch or hatches. transitive
"'Twere not amiss to keep our door hatched."
- 2 To emerge from an egg. intransitive
"These three chicks hatched yesterday morning."
- 3 To shade an area of (a drawing, diagram, etc.) with fine parallel lines, or with lines which cross each other (crosshatch). transitive
"Those hatching strokes of the pencil."
- 4 sit on (eggs) wordnet
- 5 To break open when a young animal emerges from it. intransitive
"She was delighted when she heard the crackling sound of the eggs hatching."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 To cross; to spot; to stain; to steep. obsolete, transitive
"His weapon hatch'd in blood."
- 7 emerge from the eggs wordnet
- 8 To incubate eggs; to cause to hatch. transitive
"I'm hatching this mysterious egg I found in the forest."
- 9 draw, cut, or engrave lines, usually parallel, on metal, wood, or paper wordnet
- 10 To devise (a plot or scheme). transitive
"World domination was only one of the evil schemes he had hatched over the years."
- 11 devise or invent wordnet
- 12 inlay with narrow strips or lines of a different substance such as gold or silver, for the purpose of decorating wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
"The hen sits on her eggs until they hatch."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "hatch"?
Common synonyms include: access, aeroplane, airplane, angle, archway, autolithograph.
How do you use "hatch" in a sentence?
The hen sits on her eggs until they hatch.
How do you pronounce "hatch"?
Pronounced /hæt͡ʃ/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English hacche, hache, from Old English hæċ, from Proto-West Germanic *hakkju (compare Dutch hek ‘gate, railing’, Low German Heck ‘pasture gate, farmyard gate’), variant of *haggju ‘hedge’. More at hedge.
Etymology 2
From Middle English hacche, hacchen (“to propagate”), from Old English *hæċċan, āhaċċian (“to peck out; hatch”), from Proto-Germanic *hakjaną. Cognate with German hecken ‘to breed, spawn’, Danish hække (“to hatch”), Swedish häcka (“to breed”); akin to Latvian kakale ‘penis’.
Etymology 3
From Middle French hacher (“to chop, slice up, incise with fine lines”), from Old French hacher, hachier, from Frankish *hakōn, *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hack”). More at hack.
Etymology 4
English surname from the root of hatch (“gate”).