• IPA: /ˈfɛt͡ʃɪŋ/

From fetch + -ing.

fetching

1. Attractive; pleasant to regard.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:attractive

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC ↗, page 171 ↗:

     Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.

   • 2000, Bill Bryson, chapter 1, in In a Sunburned Country, page 11:

     I am not, I regret to say, a discreet and fetching sleeper. Most people when they nod off look as if they could do with a blanket; I look as if I could do with medical attention.

• French: attirant
• German: attraktiv
• Portuguese: atraente
• Russian: привлека́тельный
• Spanish: atractivo

1. Present participle and gerund of fetch
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:

     She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.

From Middle English fetchynge, fecchynge, faching, fettynge, equivalent to fetch + -ing.

fetching (plural fetchings)

1. The act by which something is fetched.
   • 1834, Evidence on drunkenness: presented to the House of Commons:

     These lumpers were also in the habit of inducing their men during the week to send to their pay-house for fetchings of drink, besides the money they were compelled to spend on Saturday night.