dial. Also clatch. [f. CLECK v.: cf. bake, batch, etc. Cf. CLUTCH sb.2] A brood, a hatching (of chickens); contempt. a family.
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, Cletch, a Brood: as, a Cletch of Chickens.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., Wks. 1830, IV. 161. Ten, fifteen, or twenty young birds may be produced in one cletch or covey.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., ‘A cletch of chickens.’
1858. P. J. Bailey, The Age, 147.
| You and your tribe will form a numerous clatch | |
| Some day, I take it, about Colney Hatch. |
1868. E. Waugh, Sneck-Bant, i. 7, in Lanc. Gloss., A clatch of ducks.
1877. Holderness Gloss., ‘He cums of a bad cletch.’
1880. Lanc. Gloss., Clatch, clutch.
