Hatch Meaning
/hæt͡ʃ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
nounA trapdoor.
Sentence Examples
The hen sits on her eggs until they hatch.
The crew is now opening the hatch.
The female sits on the eggs until they hatch.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The mother bird sat on her eggs for weeks until they finally began to ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The birds are waiting patiently for their eggs to ____ so they can finally see their chicks.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A service hatch with sliding shutter is situated at the end of the kitchen next to the dining compartment."
— 1950 June, “New Restaurant and Buffet Cars, G.N.R.(I.)”, in Railway Magazine, page 415:
"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."
— 1963 February, “Diesel locomotive faults and their remedies”, in Modern Railways, page 100:
"The farmers lower down the brook pull up the hatches to let the flood pass."
— 1879, Richard Jeffries, Wild Life in a Southern County:
"It consisted of a rude wooden stool , and still ruder hatch or bed-frame"
— 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
"'Twere not amiss to keep our door hatched."
— c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The mother bird sat on her eggs for weeks until they finally began to ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The birds are waiting patiently for their eggs to ____ so they can finally see their chicks.