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A name in the West Indies for several kinds of palm, the leaves of which are used for thatching. Thatch sparrow, the house sparrow. [Prov. Eng.]

One who thatches.

The act or art of covering buildings with thatch; so as to keep out rain, snow, etc.

scutcheon or ensign armorial; now generally applied to the funeral shield commonly called hatchment. Cussans.

he ship; -- applied to any object in the rear part of a vessel; as the after cabin, after hatchway.

Nursers, -- a term applied to those birds whose young are hatched in a very immature and helpless condition, so as to require the care of their parents for some time; -- opposed to præcoces.

Birds which are able to run about and obtain their own food as soon as hatched.

A species of divination, by means of an ax or hatchet.

ed by some savages, particularly the natives of the South Sea Islands, for making axes or hatchets.

set of buildings. He lodged in a miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches and thatched with straw. Gibbon.

sten with battens. To batten down, to fasten down with battens, as the tarpaulin over the hatches of a ship during a storm.

An African bird of the genus Buphaga, which feeds on the larvæ of botflies hatched under the skin of oxen, antelopes, etc. Two species are known.

goose (Branta leucopsis), of Arctic Europe and America. It was formerly believed that it hatched from the cirripeds of the sea (Lepas), which were, therefore, called barnacles, goose barnacles, or Anatifers. The name is also applied to other related species. See Anatifa and Cirripedia.

The nest in which a bird lays eggs and hatches her young.

ed, whether animal or vegetable. Poets are far rarer births that kings. B. Jonson. Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself. Addison.

Smeared with bitumen. [R.] "The hatches caulked and bitumed." Shak.

To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch. Yet every mother breeds not sons alike. Shak. If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog. Shak.

To foment or prepare, as by brewing; to contrive; to plot; to concoct; to hatch; as, to brew mischief. Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! Milton.

An awl; a bodkin; also, a wooden rod or pin, sharpened at each end, used by thatchers. [Prov. Eng.] Forby.

The young birds hatched at one time; a hatch; as, a brood of chicken. As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings. Luke xiii. 34. A hen followed by a brood of ducks. Spectator.