Etymology

fetch and carry

fetch and car·ry

Today it means: To serve obsequiously. Full definition →

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The story

From fetch + and + carry, originally a reference to a trained dog fetching and conveying an object back to its master: see, for example, William Shakespeare’s play The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act III, scene i (spelling modernized): “She hath more qualities than a water-spaniel, […] She can fetch and carry: why a horse can do no more; nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry, therefore is she better than a jade.”

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.