verb. (common).—To be brought to bed with child; to BUST UP (q.v.).
TO BE UNDER HATCHES, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be in a state of trouble, poverty or depression. Also dead.
1606. MARSTON, Parasitaster, or the Fawne, iv. Gar. Right. Remember hee got his elder brothers wife with child, and so deprivde himselfe of th’ inheritance. Her. That will stow him UNDER HATCHES, I warrant you.
1690. LOCKE, Two Treatises of Government, I., ii. He assures us how this Fatherhood began in Adam, continued its Course … till the Captivity of the Israelites in Egypt; and then the poor Fatherhood WAS UNDER HATCHES.
1639–1661. Rump Songs, i. [1662], 260. And all her orphans bestowed UNDER HATCHES.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. UNDER THE HATCHES, in Trouble, or Prison.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v. UNDER THE HATCHES, in Trouble, or Prison.
1786. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. UNDER THE HATCHES; in trouble, distress, or debt.
1789. DIBDIN, Tom Bowling.
| For though his body’s | |
| UNDER HATCHES, | |
| His soul has gone aloft. |
1835. BUCKSTONE, The Dream at Sea, i., 3. Good-bye, dame; cheer up, you may not always be UNDER HATCHES.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
