(hatches, hatching, hatched)
1.
When a baby bird, insect, or other animal hatches, or when it is hatched, it comes out of its egg by breaking the shell.
As soon as the two chicks hatch, they leave the nest burrow...
The young disappeared soon after they were hatched.
VERB: V, be V-ed
2.
When an egg hatches or when a bird, insect, or other animal hatches an egg, the egg breaks open and a baby comes out.
The eggs hatch after a week or ten days...
During these periods the birds will lie on the cage floor as if trying to lay or hatch eggs.
VERB: V, V n
3.
If you hatch a plot or a scheme, you think of it and work it out.
He has accused opposition parties of hatching a plot to assassinate the Pope.
VERB: V n
4.
A hatch is an opening in the deck of a ship, through which people or cargo can go. You can also refer to the door of this opening as a hatch.
He stuck his head up through the hatch...
N-COUNT
5.
A hatch is an opening in a ceiling or a wall, especially between a kitchen and a dining room, which you can pass something such as food through. (mainly BRIT)
N-COUNT
6.
If someone battens down the hatches, they prepare themselves so that they will be able to survive a coming difficulty or crisis.
Many firms are battening down the hatches and preparing to ride out the storm.
PHRASE: V inflects