fetch

present singular third person fetches · participle present fetching · participle past fetched · past fetched · alternative fatch · alternative fotch

1. ditransitivetransitiveTo retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get.

   I'm thirsty. Can you fetch me a glass of water, please?

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   You have to fetch some sugar in order to proceed with the recipe.

   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.

   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]

   He called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings xvii:11-12

   Jack and Gill Went up the hill, To fetch a bottle of water.

   1795, Gammer Gurton's Garland, or, The Nursery Parnassus, Stockton: R. Christopher, page 51

   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.

   1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.

   If you put some new tyres on it, and clean it up a bit, the car should fetch about $5,000

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   Our native horses[…] were held in small esteem, and fetched low prices.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, 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

   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.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).

   2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

3. nauticalTo bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.

   to fetch headway or sternway

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   Meantime flew our ships, and straight we fetched / The siren's isle.

   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

4. intransitiveTo bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
5. literaryraretransitiveTo 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.

   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

6. transitiveTo cause to come; to bring to a particular state.

   They couldn't fetch the butter in the churn.

   1879, William Barnes, A Witch

7. obsoletetransitiveTo recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to.

   to fetch a man to

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   Fetching men again when they swoon.

   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

8. transitiveTo reduce; to throw.

   The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground.

   1692, Robert South, sermon 28

9. archaictransitiveTo accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions.

   to fetch a compass;  to fetch a leap

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   I'll fetch a turn about the garden.

   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]

   Ixion[…]turn'd dancer, does nothing but cut capreols, fetch friskals, and leads lavaltoes

   1631, Ben Jonson, Chloridia

   He fetches his blow quick and sure.

   1692, Robert South, sermon 28

10. transitivenauticalTo make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.

    [Neptune] himself fetched the earth a swashing blow with his trident, causing it to quake like a jelly.

    1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 150

plural fetches

1. alsofigurativelyAn act of fetching, of bringing something from a distance.
   1. alsofigurativelyspecificallycomputingAn 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.

   When a fetch is close to land, this variability will alter anticipated wind directions and velocities.

   1977, Coastal Engineering Research Center (U.S.), Shore Protection Manual, page 29

4. The length of such an area; the distance a wave can travel across a body of water (without obstruction).

   From recently completed radar maps of the Brazilian Amazon I determined the shape, maximum fetch and width and orientation of all the lakes greater than 100 meters across in the floodplain […]

   1983, Résumés

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   For example, a steady wind of 40-50 kilometres/hour - a Force 6 strong breeze - blowing for 12 hours over an initially calm sea and traversing a fetch of 1000 kilometres could produce a significant wave height […]

   2006, Andrew Rose, Sandra Rose, 'Man Overboard!': The HMAS Nizam Tragedy, Red Rose Books, →ISBN, page 48

   Wind waves continue to grow within the fetch area, [...] A graphical wave hindcasting method by means of Wilson's fetch diagrams produced an estimate of H_(1/3) = 9.4 m and T_(1/3) = 12.3 s over the fetch of about 1,800 km on the 7th of April.

   2010, Yoshimi Goda, Random Seas and Design of Maritime Structures, World Scientific, →ISBN, page 66

5. A stratagem or trick; an artifice.

   They used cunning fetches to swindle money out of the gullible.

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   Every little fetch of wit and criticism.

   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

   And as to your cant of living single, nobody will believe you. This is one of your fetches to avoid complying with your duty […].

   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; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: contrivance, dodge

6. uncountableA game played with a dog in which a person throws an object for the dog to retrieve.

1. UtahMinced oath for fuck.

plural fetches

1. dialectalThe 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”).First known use 18th c.

   Several farm maidservants meet to see their future lovers' spirits on Midsummer Eve, but see only the "fetch" or double of one of them, foretelling her death.

   1921, Sterling Andrus Leonard, “Bibliography of Plays for Reading in High Schools”, in Sterling Andrus Leonard, editor, The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays: […], Boston, Mass.: The Atlantic Monthly Press, →OCLC, page 300

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   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.

   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

   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.

   1905, Gordon Bottomley, Midsummer Eve, Harting, Petersfield, Hampshire: Pear Tree Press, →OCLC; republished in King Lear’s Wife, The Crier by Night, The Riding to Lithend, Midsummer Eve, Laodice and Danaë: Plays, London: Constable & Company, 1920, →OCLC, page 159

   "If you're after some money," said the millionaire, "move that cat out of the way." Catweazle shook his head. "Mayhap 'tis a fetch." Victor was very taken aback. "A fetch?" he gulped. "That's a witch in the shape of a cat, isn't it?" "Ay," said Catweazle calmly.

   1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 80