fetch
verb
- to find and bring
noun
- the length of water over which a given wind has blown
- an act or instance of fetching
- trick, stratagem
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /fɛt͡ʃ/ / /fɑt͡ʃ/
intj
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen (“to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure”) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (“to fetch, bring; to draw; to gain, take; to seek”), a variant of fetian, fatian (“to bring near, fetch; to acquire, obtain; to bring on, induce; to fetch a wife, marry”) and possibly related to Old English facian, fācian (“to acquire, obtain; to try to obtain; to get; to get to, reach”), both from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to hold, seize; to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). The English word is cognate with Dutch vatten (“to apprehend, catch; to grasp; to understand”), German fassen (“to catch, grasp; to capture, seize”), English fet (“(obsolete) to fetch”), Faroese fata (“to grasp, understand”), Danish fatte (“to grasp, understand”), Swedish fatta (“to grasp, understand”), Icelandic feta (“to go, step”), West Frisian fetsje (“to grasp”). The noun is derived from the verb.
- Minced oath for fuck.
noun
Etymology: Uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From fetch-life (“(obsolete, rare) a deity, spirit, etc., who guides the soul of a dead person to the afterlife; a psychopomp”). * From the supposed Old English *fæcce (“evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; a mare”). * From Old Irish fáith (“seer, soothsayer”).
- 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 (“a person's likeness seen just after their death; a ghost, a spectre”).
“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.”
“I think it was a fetch. [...] Folk say a fetch is seen at its departing / From a cold house whence it shall lead a soul; / But this comes like a child-birth closing in, / And so perchance it does but signify / The consciousness of death that breaks in all.”
verb
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen (“to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure”) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (“to fetch, bring; to draw; to gain, take; to seek”), a variant of fetian, fatian (“to bring near, fetch; to acquire, obtain; to bring on, induce; to fetch a wife, marry”) and possibly related to Old English facian, fācian (“to acquire, obtain; to try to obtain; to get; to get to, reach”), both from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to hold, seize; to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). The English word is cognate with Dutch vatten (“to apprehend, catch; to grasp; to understand”), German fassen (“to catch, grasp; to capture, seize”), English fet (“(obsolete) to fetch”), Faroese fata (“to grasp, understand”), Danish fatte (“to grasp, understand”), Swedish fatta (“to grasp, understand”), Icelandic feta (“to go, step”), West Frisian fetsje (“to grasp”). The noun is derived from the verb.
- 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?”
- To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
“Our native horses[…] were held in small esteem, and fetched low prices.”
“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.”
- To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
“to fetch headway or sternway”
“Meantime flew our ships, and straight we fetched / The siren's isle.”
- To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
- To take (a breath); to heave (a sigh).
“The hurt nigger moaned feebly somewhere near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that made me mend my pace away from there.”
- To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
“They couldn't fetch the butter in the churn.”
- To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to.
“to fetch a man to”
“Fetching men again when they swoon.”
- To reduce; to throw.
“The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground.”
- To accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions.
“to fetch a compass; to fetch a leap”
“I'll fetch a turn about the garden.”
- To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.