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fetch - 10 dictionary results

fetch

1  [fech]
Use fetch in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to go and bring back; return with; get: to go up a hill to fetch a pail of water.
2. to cause to come; bring: to fetch a doctor.
3. to sell for or bring (a price, financial return, etc.): The horse fetched $50 more than it cost.
4. Informal. to charm; captivate: Her beauty fetched the coldest hearts.
5. to take (a breath).
6. to utter (a sigh, groan, etc.).
7. to deal or deliver (a stroke, blow, etc.).
8. to perform or execute (a movement, step, leap, etc.).
9. Chiefly Nautical and British Dialect. to reach; arrive at: to fetch port.
10. Hunting. (of a dog) to retrieve (game).
–verb (used without object)
11. to go and bring things.
12. Chiefly Nautical. to move or maneuver.
13. Hunting. to retrieve game (often used as a command to a dog).
14. to go by an indirect route; circle (often fol. by around or about): We fetched around through the outer suburbs.
–noun
15. the act of fetching.
16. the distance of fetching: a long fetch.
17. Oceanography.
a. an area where ocean waves are being generated by the wind.
b. the length of such an area.
18. the reach or stretch of a thing.
19. a trick; dodge.
—Verb phrases
20. fetch about, Nautical. (of a sailing vessel) to come onto a new tack.
21. fetch up,
a. Informal. to arrive or stop.
b. Older Use. to raise (children); bring up: She had to fetch up her younger sisters.
c. Nautical. (of a vessel) to come to a halt, as by lowering an anchor or running aground; bring up.
—Idiom
22. fetch and carry, to perform menial tasks.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME fecchen, OE fecc(e)an, var. of fetian to fetch (cf. ME feten, fetten, Brit. dial. fet; akin to OE -fat in sīthfat journey, G fassen to grasp)

Related forms:
fetcher, noun

Synonyms:
1. See bring.

fetch

2  [fech]
–noun
wraith (def. 1).
Origin:
1780–90; perh. short for fetch-life one sent to fetch the soul of a dying person
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To fetch
fetch 1   (fěch)   
v.   fetched, fetch·ing, fetch·es

v.   tr.
  1. To come or go after and take or bring back: The puppy fetched the stick that we had tossed.
    1. To cause to come.
    2. To bring in as a price: fetched a thousand dollars at auction.
    3. To interest or attract.
    4. To draw in (breath); inhale.
    5. To bring forth (a sigh, for example) with obvious effort.
    1. To draw in (breath); inhale.
    2. To bring forth (a sigh, for example) with obvious effort.
  4. Informal To deliver (a blow) by striking; deal.
  5. Nautical To arrive at; reach: fetched port after a month at sea.
v.   intr.
    1. To go after something and return with it.
    2. To retrieve killed game. Used of a hunting dog.
    3. To hold a course.
    4. To turn about; veer.
  2. To take an indirect route.
  3. Nautical
    1. To hold a course.
    2. To turn about; veer.
n.  
  1. The act or an instance of fetching.
  2. A stratagem or trick.
    1. The distance over which a wind blows.
    2. The distance traveled by waves with no obstruction.
Phrasal Verb(s):
fetch up
  1. To reach a stopping place or goal; end up: "He went down and out at the same time and fetched up on his back clear in the middle of the room" (Madison Smart Bell).
  2. To make up (lost time, for example).
  3. To bring forth; produce.
  4. To bring to a halt; stop.

[Middle English fecchen, from Old English feccean; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]
fetch'er n.
fetch 2   (fěch)   
n.   Chiefly British
  1. A ghost; an apparition.
  2. A doppelgänger.

[Origin unknown.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Fetch

Fetch\ (?; 224), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fetched 2; p. pr. & vb. n.. Fetching.] [OE. fecchen, AS. feccan, perh. the same word as fetian; or cf. facian to wish to get, OFries. faka to prepare. [root] 77. Cf. Fet, v. t.]

1. To bear toward the person speaking, or the person or thing from whose point of view the action is contemplated; to go and bring; to get.

Time will run back and fetch the age of gold. --Milton.

He called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bred in thine hand. --1 Kings xvii. 11, 12.

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

Our native horses were held in small esteem, and fetched low prices. --Macaulay.

3. To recall from a swoon; to revive; -- sometimes with to; as, to fetch a man to.

Fetching men again when they swoon. --Bacon.

4. To reduce; to throw.

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

5. To bring to accomplishment; to achieve; to make; to perform, with certain objects; as, to fetch a compass; to fetch a leap; to fetch a sigh.

I'll fetch a turn about the garden. --Shak.

He fetches his blow quick and sure. --South.

6. To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.

Meantine flew our ships, and straight we fetched The siren's isle. --Chapman.

7. To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.

They could n't fetch the butter in the churn. --W. Barnes.

To fetch a compass (Naut.), to make a sircuit; to take a circuitious route going to a place.

To fetch a pump, to make it draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.

To fetch headway or sternway (Naut.), to move ahead or astern.

To fetch out, to develop. "The skill of the polisher fetches out the colors [of marble]" --Addison.

To fetch up. (a) To overtake. [Obs.] "Says [the hare], I can fetch up the tortoise when I please." --L'Estrange. (b) To stop suddenly.

fetch

fetch\, v. i. To bring one's self; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward. --Totten.

To fetch away (Naut.), to break loose; to roll slide to leeward.

To fetch and carry, to serve obsequiously, like a trained spaniel.

Fetch

Fetch\, n. 1. A stratagem by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass, or by which one thing seems intended and another is done; a trick; an artifice.

Every little fetch of wit and criticism. --South.

2. The apparation of a living person; a wraith.

The very fetch and ghost of Mrs. Gamp. --Dickens.

Fetch candle, a light seen at night, superstitiously believed to portend a person's death.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : fetch
Spanish: ir por, ir a buscar, traer,
German: holen,
Japanese: 取って来る
More Translations »

fetch 
O.E. feccan, apparently a variant of fetian, fatian "to fetch, bring, to marry," probably from P.Gmc. *fatojanan (cf. O.N. feta "to find one's way," O.H.G. sih faggon "to mount, climb"), related to O.E. fot "foot." Variant form fet, a derivation of the older O.E. version of the word, survived as a competitor until 17c. Fetching (adj.) appeared 1581 meaning "crafty, scheming;" the sense of "alluring, fascinating" is 1880.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Fetch
A Macintosh program by Jim Matthews for transferring files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Fetch requires a Mac 512KE, System 4.1, and either KSP 1.03 or MacTCP.
Latest version: 2.1.2.
Fetch is Copyright 1992, Trustees of Dartmouth College.
(ftp://ftp.Dartmouth.edu/pub/mac/Fetch_2.1.2.sit.hqx). (ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/systems/mac/info-mac/comm/tcp).
(1994-11-30)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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fetch

area of ocean or lake surface over which the wind blows in an essentially constant direction, thus generating waves. The term also is used as a synonym for fetch length, which is the horizontal distance over which wave-generating winds blow. In an enclosed body of water, fetch is also defined as the distance between the points of minimum and maximum water-surface elevation. This line generally coincides with the longest axis in the general wind direction. Fetch is an important factor in the development of wind waves, which increase in height with increasing fetch up to a maximum of 1,600 km (1,000 miles). Wave heights do not increase with increasing fetch beyond this distance

Learn more about fetch with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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