hatch.

1. An opening with a cover or door, especially in a ship, aircraft, or compartment.

2. To break out of an egg, or cause young to emerge from eggs.

3. To develop a plan, often privately or with questionable intent.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• access hatch
• escape hatch

On the page

The access hatch refused to close.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular hatch; plural hatches. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: hatches.