hatch
/hæt͡ʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.82 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.
noun
A trapdoor.
noun
An opening in a wall at window height for the purpose of serving food or other items. A pass through.
noun
A small door in large mechanical structures and vehicles such as aircraft and spacecraft often provided for access for maintenance.
noun
A floodgate; a sluice gate.
Example Sentences
- "Moving the wardrobe revealed a previously hidden hatch in the ground."
- "The cook passed the dishes through the serving hatch."
- "A service hatch with sliding shutter is situated at the end of the kitchen next to the dining compartment."
- "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."
- "The farmers lower down the brook pull up the hatches to let the flood pass."
- "It consisted of a rude wooden stool , and still ruder hatch or bed-frame"
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hacche, hæċ, *hakkju, *hæċċan, *hakjaną, hacher