hatch

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An opening, as in the deck of a ship, in the roof or floor of a building, or in an aircraft.
• noun The cover for such an opening.
• noun A hatchway.
• noun Nautical A ship's compartment.
• noun A door that opens upward on the rear of an automobile; a hatchback.
• noun A floodgate.
• idiom (down the hatch) Drink up. Often used as a toast.
• transitive verb To shade by drawing or etching fine parallel or crossed lines on.
• noun A fine line used in hatching.
• intransitive verb To emerge from or break out of an egg.
• intransitive verb To produce (young) from an egg.
• intransitive verb To cause (an egg or eggs) to produce young.
• intransitive verb To devise or originate, especially in secret.
• noun The act or an instance of hatching.
• noun The young hatched at one time; a brood.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To close with or as with a hatch.
• noun A brood; as many young birds as are produced at one time, or by one incubation.
• noun The number of eggs incubated at one time; a clutch.
• noun The act of hatching; also, that which is hatched, in either sense of that word.
• noun A half-door, or a door with an opening over it; a grated or latticed door or gate; a wicket.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun Hence Any similar opening, as in the floor of a building, or a cover placed over it.
• noun An opening made in a mine, or made in searching for a mine.
• noun A rack for hay.
• noun A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
• noun A bedstead.
• noun A hollow trap to catch weasels and other animals.
• noun Under close confinement; in servitude.
• 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).
• To contrive or plot, especially secretly; form by meditation, and bring into being; originate and produce: as, to hatch mischief; to hatch heresy.
• 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.
• To come forth from or out of the egg: as, the chicks hatch naked in ten days.
• noun A shading line in drawing or engraving.
• To chase; engrave; mark with cuts or lines.
• Specifically, in drawing, engraving, etc., to shade by means of lines; especially, to shade with lines crossing one another. See hatching and cross-hatching.
• To lay in small and numerous bands upon a ground of different material: as, laces of silver hatched on a satin ground.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To produce, as young, from an egg or eggs by incubation, or by artificial heat; to produce young from (eggs).
• transitive verb To contrive or plot; to form by meditation, and bring into being; to originate and produce; to concoct
• intransitive verb To produce young; -- said of eggs; to come forth from the egg; -- said of the young of birds, fishes, insects, etc.
• noun The act of hatching.
• noun Development; disclosure; discovery.
• noun The chickens produced at once or by one incubation; a brood.
• transitive verb To close with a hatch or hatches.
• noun A door with an opening over it; a half door, sometimes set with spikes on the upper edge.
• noun A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
• noun A flood gate; a sluice gate.
• noun Scot. A bedstead.
• noun 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.