hutch

English

Etymology

From Middle English hucche (“storage chest”), variation of whucce, from Old English hwiċe, hwiċċe (“box, chest”). Spelling influenced by Old French huche (“chest”), from Medieval Latin hūtica, from a different Germanic root, from Frankish *hutta, from Proto-Germanic *hudjō, *hudjǭ (“box, hut, hutch”). Akin to Old English hȳdan (“to conceal; hide”). More at hide, hut.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hʌtʃ/
• Rhymes: -ʌtʃ

Noun

hutch (plural hutches)

1. A cage for keeping rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.
   • 1960, Harper Lee, chapter 16, in To Kill a Mockingbird:

     To reach the courtroom, on the second floor, one passed sundry sunless county cubbyholes: the tax assessor,... the circuit clerk, the judge of probate lived in cool dim hutches that smelled […]

2. A piece of furniture in which items may be displayed.
3. A measure of two Winchester bushels.
4. (mining) The case of a flour bolt.
5. (mining) A car on low wheels, in which coal is drawn in the mine and hoisted out of the pit.
6. (mining) A jig or trough for ore dressing or washing ore.
7. A baker's kneading-trough.

Translations

cage for rabbits

• Bulgarian: клетка (bg) f (kletka)
• Catalan: conillera f
• Czech: kotec (cs) m
• Ido: kabaneto (io)
• Irish: púirín coinín m
• Italian: gabbia (it) f, conigliera (it) f

• Manx: kishtey conning m
• Russian: кле́тка (ru) (klétka) (для (dlja) кроликов (krolikov)) (klétka (dlja królikov)) f
• Scottish Gaelic: bothan-còmhnaidh m
• Spanish: conejera (es) f
• Welsh: cwt cwningen m

(mining) A car on low wheels

• Bulgarian: вагонетка f (vagonetka)

Verb

hutch (third-person singular simple present hutches, present participle hutching, simple past and past participle hutched)

1. (transitive) To hoard or lay up, in a chest.
   • Milton

     She hutched the […] ore.

2. (mining, transitive) To wash (ore) in a box or jig.