• (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.

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.

• 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

• German: holen, kriegen

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.

1. (Utah) Minced oath for fuck.

• From fetch-life.
• From the supposed Old English *fæcce.
• From Old Irish fáith.

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.