But·ter·y, n.; pl. Butteries
1. An apartment in a house where butter, milk and other provisions are kept.
All that need a cool and fresh temper, as cellars, pantries, and butteries, to the north. --Sir H. Wotton.
2. A room in some English colleges where liquors, fruit, and refreshments are kept for sale to the students.
And the major Oxford kept the buttery bar. --E. Hall.
3. A cellar in which butts of wine are kept.
Buttery hatch, a half door between the buttery or kitchen and the hall, in old mansions, over which provisions were passed.
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Hatch, n.
1. A door with an opening over it; a half door, sometimes set with spikes on the upper edge.
In at the window, or else o'er the hatch. --Shak.
2. A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.
3. A flood gate; a sluice gate.
4. A bedstead. [Scot.]
5. An opening in the deck of a vessel or floor of a warehouse which serves as a passageway or hoistway; a hatchway; also; a cover or door, or one of the covers used in closing such an opening.
6. Mining An opening into, or in search of, a mine.
Booby hatch, Buttery hatch, Companion hatch, etc. See under Booby, Buttery, etc.
To batten down the hatches Naut., to lay tarpaulins over them, and secure them with battens.
To be under hatches, to be confined below in a vessel; to be under arrest, or in slavery, distress, etc.