fetch
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Pronunciation
- (RP, America) enPR: fĕch, IPA: /fɛt͡ʃ/
- (Southern US, AAVE, obsolete) enPR: fŏch, IPA: /fɑt͡ʃ/ (see fotch)
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.
Verbfetch (fetches, present participle fetching; simple past and past participle fetched)
- (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.
- (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
- (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.
- (intransitive) To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
- (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.
- (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.
- (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.
- (transitive) To reduce; to throw.
- 1692, Robert South, sermon 28
- The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground.
- 1692, Robert South, sermon 28
- (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.
- (nautical, transitive) To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.
- French: ramener, rapporter, aller chercher
- German: holen
- Italian: riportare, recuperare, ritrovare, ripescare, rintracciare
- Portuguese: buscar
- Russian: приноси́ть
- Spanish: traer, buscar, ir a por
- French: rapporter
- German: einbringen, hereinholen
- Italian: valere, racimolare
- Spanish: venderse
- German: schaffen, hinlegen, vollführen
- Italian: raccattare
fetch (plural fetches)
- (also, figuratively) An act of fetching, of bringing something from a distance.
- (computing, specifically) An act of fetching data.
- a fetch from a cache
- (computing, specifically) An act of fetching data.
- The object of fetching; the source of an attraction; a force, propensity, or quality which attracts.
- An area over which wind is blowing (over water) and generating waves.
- The length of such an area; the distance a wave can travel across a body of water (without obstruction).
- 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 […].
- (uncountable) A game played with a dog in which a person throws an object for the dog to retrieve.
- (Utah) Minced oath for fuck.
- From fetch-life.
- From the supposed Old English *fæcce.
- From Old Irish fáith.
fetch (plural fetches)
- (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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