Fetch (fech; 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. √ 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.

 

© Webster 1913


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 1913