fetch
Pronunciation
  • (RP, America) enPR: fĕch, IPA: /fɛt͡ʃ/
  • (Southern US, AAVE, obsolete) enPR: fŏch, IPA: /fɑt͡ʃ/ (see fotch)
Etymology 1

The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen  [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean, a variant of fetian, fatian and possibly related to Old English facian, fācian, both from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ped-.

The noun is derived from the verb.

Verb

fetch (fetches, present participle fetching; simple past and past participle fetched)

  1. (transitive, ditransitive) To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get.
    You have to fetch some sugar in order to proceed with the recipe.
    I'm thirsty. Can you fetch me a glass of water, please?
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene iii]:
      SATURNINUS: Go fetch them hither to us presently.
      TITUS: Why, there they are, both baked in that pie,
      Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
      Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 1 Kings xvii:11-12 ↗:
      He called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
    • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC ↗:
      When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and planted the Mole in an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a dressing-gown and slippers for him, and told him river stories till supper-time.
  2. (transitive) To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
    • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC ↗:
      Our native horses […] were held in small esteem, and fetched low prices.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.
    If you put some new tyres on it, and clean it up a bit, the car should fetch about $5,000
  3. (nautical) To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
    to fetch headway or sternway
    • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer's Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC ↗; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC ↗:
      Meantime flew our ships, and straight we fetched / The siren's isle.
      The spelling has been modernized.
  4. (intransitive) To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
  5. (transitive, rare, literary) To take (a breath); to heave (a sigh).
    • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC ↗, part I:
      The hurt nigger moaned feebly somewhere near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that made me mend my pace away from there.
  6. (transitive) To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
    • 1879, William Barnes, A Witch:
      They couldn't fetch the butter in the churn.
  7. (obsolete, transitive) To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to.
    to fetch a man to
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC ↗:
      Fetching men again when they swoon.
  8. (transitive) To reduce; to throw.
    • 1692, Robert South, sermon 28
      The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground.
  9. (archaic, transitive) To accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions.
    to fetch a compass;  to fetch a leap
    • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
      I'll fetch a turn about the garden.
    • 1631, Ben Jonson, Chloridia:
      Ixion […] turn'd dancer, does nothing but cut capreols, fetch friskals, and leads lavaltoes
    • 1692, Robert South, sermon 28
      He fetches his blow quick and sure.
  10. (nautical, transitive) To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

fetch (plural fetches)

  1. (also, figuratively) An act of fetching, of bringing something from a distance.
    1. (computing, specifically) An act of fetching data.
      a fetch from a cache
  2. The object of fetching; the source of an attraction; a force, propensity, or quality which attracts.
  3. An area over which wind is blowing (over water) and generating waves.
  4. The length of such an area; the distance a wave can travel across a body of water (without obstruction).
  5. A stratagem or trick; an artifice.
    Synonyms: contrivance, dodge
    • 1665, Robert South, “Jesus of Nazareth proved the true and only promised Messiah”, in Twelve Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volume 3, published 1727:
      Every little fetch of wit and criticism.
    • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXIX”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC ↗:
      And as to your cant of living single, nobody will believe you. This is one of your fetches to avoid complying with your duty […].
  6. (uncountable) A game played with a dog in which a person throws an object for the dog to retrieve.
Interjection
  1. (Utah) Minced oath for fuck.
Etymology 2
  • From fetch-life.
  • From the supposed Old English *fæcce.
  • From Old Irish fáith.
Noun

fetch (plural fetches)

  1. (originally, Ireland, dialectal) The apparition of a living person; a person's double, the sight of which is supposedly a sign that they are fated to die soon, a doppelganger; a wraith. [from 18th c.]
    • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “The Reader is Brought into Communication with Some Professional Persons, and Sheds a Tear over the Filial Piety of Good Mr. Jonas”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC ↗, page 236 ↗:
      In these dilapidated articles of dress she had, on principle, arrayed herself, time out of mind, on such occasions as the present; for this at once expressed a decent amount of veneration for the deceased, and invited the next of kin to present her with a fresher set of weeds: an appeal so frequently successful, that the very fetch and ghost of Mrs. Gamp, bonnet and all, might be seen hanging up, at any hour of the day, in at least a dozen of the second-hand clothes shops around Holborn.



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