fetch up

present singular third person fetches up · participle present fetching up · participle past fetched up · past fetched up

1. intransitiveTo arrive somewhere, especially unexpectedly.

   We panicked again for a moment, but the wind switched direction without warning, and we slowly drifted away till we fetched up at Tsukuda island, where the Sumida runs into the bay.

   1995, Junichi Saga, Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld

   1 more example

   These salvos tore apart San Francisco's upper works, and, as Admiral Callaghan and most of the bridge crew died in the inferno and explosions, a few shrapnel-ridden survivors fetched up in unlikely portions of the ship, and it now came about that every senior commanding officer on both sides was now dead or out of action within the opening acts of the battle.

   2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 17:08 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 17 Oct 2022

2. obsoletetransitiveTo overtake.

   Says [the hare], I can fetch up the tortoise when I please.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

3. intransitivetransitiveTo vomit.
4. USarchaiccolloquialTo suddenly stop.