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Glite Dictionary
to hatch a plan

to hatch a plan

12 3.6
To make a secret or careful plan to do something
  • phrasal verb
  • /hæʧ ə plæn/
translation icon : tramar
  • In our final days at 950 Hart Street, we hatched a plan to see how far out our community stretched.
  • hatched an audacious plan
  • hatched a diabolical plan
  • hatch a new plan

So I hatched a plan to be able to work out at home.

Examples

  • One of these men has hatched a plan to extricate you from the King's embrace.

    Casanova (2015)

  • At a compound in Mountain View, CA, Internet billionaire Naveen Jane is hatching a plan that could make him the world's first trillionaire.

  • So I hatched a plan to be able to work out at home.

    Viva La Dirt League

  • But Kenny boy was smart, and it didn't take long for him to hatch a plan.

    Blog text (21)

  • So I've hatched a plan, my friend.

    Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

  • After all, he reasoned, fearless leaders hatch better escape plans after a nice, big meal.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • They shared a prison cell where they hatched a plan to start their reign of terror.

    Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

  • They hatched a plan to bring the library under the control of its own board—it was run by the school system up to that point.

    Blog text (20)

  • She hatched a plan, so daring, so visionary, to start her very own Supervillain Academy and raise a generation of heroes from scratch as villains.

    Sky High (2005)

  • The team gathered in secret to hatch a plan for the upcoming heist.

Synonyms

to plan
vsto hatch a plan
∞ 1.0

To decide and arrange in advance how to do something

is usually more secretive and cautious than general arrangements
to devise
vsto hatch a plan
135 4.8

To plan or invent something carefully

is more secretive and covert rather than only careful
to plot
vsto hatch a plan
120 4.8

To make a secret plan to do something illegal

is more about careful secret development, not specifically illegal aims
to strategize
vsto hatch a plan
28 5.7

To plan the best way to reach a goal

is more secretive and careful rather than openly strategic
to scheme
vsto hatch a plan
14 6.5

To make secret plans to do something dishonest

is more about careful secrecy rather than dishonest intent
to cook up a plan
vsto hatch a plan
  • Informal
1 4.4

To think of a clever or secret plan to do something

focuses on careful secret development rather than casual invention
to hatch a scheme
vsto hatch a plan
1 6.3

Plan something in secret, often to trick or surprise others

is more about careful secrecy than crafty wrongdoing

Antonyms

to disclose
234 4.1

To tell people information that was secret

How Secretive

to concoct
46 6.0
to hatch a plan
12 3.6
to plan
∞ 1.0
to come up with
∞ 2.7

Surface Forms

hatch a plan infinitive
hatched a plan past
hatched a plan past participle
hatching a plan present participle
hatches a plan third person singular

Morphology

hatch + a + plan

The verb 'hatch' literally means to bring forth from an egg, and this image is metaphorically extended to producing or devising something, so there is a recognisable connection to the meaning 'devise a plan'. However, the extension is figurative and somewhat idiomatic (and not identically expressed across many languages), so a B1 learner who only knows the literal senses may not reliably infer the full meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

Hatch a plan may come from the image of a bird keeping eggs warm until they open, because the verb hatch means to bring young out of an egg. So to hatch a plan means 'to make or develop a plan' carefully, often in secret.