hatch
/hætʃ/ IELTSAcademic
verb
- 1.
When a young bird, fish, or insect hatch, it comes out of an egg. This is the most common biological use.
- The chicks hatch after three weeks.
- Butterflies hatch in warm weather.
- 2.
To hatch a plan or idea means to make it secretly, often in a sneaky or clever way.
- They hatched a plan to leave early.
- She hatched a clever escape idea.
noun
A hatch is a small door, opening, or cover in a floor, roof, wall, ship, or vehicle.
- Open the hatch carefully.
- The crew climbed through the hatch.
Adinary Nuance
Hatch is close to incubate, eggs out, and emerge, but they are not the same. Use hatch for the moment a baby bird or insect comes out of an egg. Use hatch a plan when you mean to secretly create a plan; that meaning is more specific than make or plan.
In other languages
- Vietnamese
- nở
- Spanish
- eclosionar
- Chinese
- 孵化
- Japanese
- 孵化する
- Korean
- 부화하다
Etymology
Hatch comes from Old English hæccan, meaning “to bring forth from an egg.” The noun use for a small opening developed later in Middle English.
Common phrases
hatch an egghatch a planhatch from an eggemergency hatch
Synonyms
Related words
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between hatch and incubate?
- Hatch is the moment the young animal comes out of the egg. Incubate means to keep the egg warm until that happens.
- Can hatch be used for ideas?
- Yes. If you hatch a plan, you create it secretly or carefully.
- Is hatch a common word in business writing?
- Only the plan meaning is sometimes used. The egg meaning is more common in science or everyday talk.