# fetch

Pronunciation: say "FECH" /fɛt͡ʃ/

## Verb

1. To go and get something or someone and bring them back; to retrieve.
   - Simple: To go to where something is and bring it back.
   - _Could you fetch me my reading glasses from the kitchen?_
   - _The nurse fetched a wheelchair so the patient wouldn't have to walk to the car._
3. To bring in a particular price or its equivalent when sold.
   - Simple: To be sold for a certain amount of money.
   - _The painting is expected to fetch more than a million dollars at auction._
   - _Lots along the lake fetched record prices last summer._
6. To cause something to come, or to bring it into a particular state.
   - Simple: To make something come, or to bring something into a certain state.
   - _Chopping a whole sack of onions would fetch tears to anyone's eyes._
   - _One hard blow to the nose fetched blood, and the referee stopped the fight._
10. To bring down or throw, as a wrestler brings an opponent to the ground.
   - Simple: To throw or knock someone down.
   - _A good leg sweep can fetch even a much heavier opponent to the mat._
   - _One low tackle fetched the runner to the ground just short of the line._
12. To reach, arrive at, or attain something by going toward it, especially by sailing.
   - Simple: To reach a place by sailing or traveling to it.
   - _On this tack the boat should just fetch the windward mark._
   - _After three days of hard sailing they fetched the island at dawn._
13. In sailing, of a ship or its crew, to make headway or change direction, as when turning about or working to windward.
   - Simple: To move forward, or to turn and go a different way.
   - _We'll have to fetch about before we reach the rocks._
   - _The schooner fetched slowly to windward against the rising gale._
15. To prime a pump, pouring water in at the top and working the handle until it begins to draw water.
   - Simple: To start a pump working by pouring water into the top and moving the handle.
   - _He poured a dipper of water down the barrel and worked the handle hard to fetch the pump._
   - _It took two buckets of seawater and a lot of pumping before they fetched the bilge pump._

## Noun

2. A game between a person and a dog, played by tossing an object for the dog to chase down and return.
   - Simple: A game in which you throw something and a dog runs to bring it back to you.
   - _Every evening they took the retriever down to the beach for a game of fetch._
   - _The puppy hasn't figured out fetch yet; he chases the ball and then lies down with it._
4. In computing, an act of retrieving data from where it is stored, such as a cache.
   - Simple: In computers, the act of getting data from the place where it is kept.
   - _A fetch from the cache is far faster than a trip to main memory._
   - _The dashboard was slow because it made dozens of separate fetches every time it loaded._
5. An act of going to get something and bringing it back from a distance.
   - Simple: The act of going to get something from far away and bringing it back.
   - _Hauling water up from the creek was a long fetch, and the children made the trip twice a day._
   - _Without a car, every fetch from the store meant a three-mile walk each way._
8. An area of water over which the wind is blowing and generating waves.
   - Simple: A stretch of water where the wind is blowing and making waves.
   - _Forecasters tracked a broad fetch of gale-force winds building south of Greenland._
   - _The swell reaching the coast today was raised in a fetch more than a thousand miles offshore._
9. The length of open water over which the wind blows and raises waves; the unobstructed distance a wave can travel across a body of water.
   - Simple: How far the wind can blow across open water, or how far a wave can travel before something stops it.
   - _On a small pond the fetch is too short for the wind to raise anything more than ripples._
   - _Engineers designing the breakwater allowed for a fetch of nearly three hundred miles to the east._
11. A cunning trick or scheme used to deceive or outwit someone.
   - Simple: A clever trick to fool someone.
   - _Her talk of a prior engagement was just a fetch to avoid the dinner._
   - _The old swindler knew every fetch for parting a stranger from his money._
14. The apparition or double of a living person, whose appearance is said to mean that person will soon die; also, a likeness of someone seen just after their death. *(dialectal)*
   - Simple: A ghost that looks just like someone who will die soon or has just died.
   - _Her grandmother swore she had seen his fetch on the bog road the night before he drowned._
   - _Meeting your own fetch at dusk, the old people said, meant you would not see the year out._

## Interjection

7. Used in Utah as a minced oath in place of fuck.
   - Simple: A softer word some people in Utah say in place of the F-word.
   - _Oh, fetch! I just locked my keys in the car again._
   - _Fetch, that hurt! Who left a skateboard on the stairs?_

## Verb

16. To draw in a breath or let out a heavy sigh. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To breathe in, or to let out a sigh.
   - _She fetched a long sigh and turned back to the window._
   - _He paused at the top of the stairs to fetch a breath before knocking._
17. To perform or carry out an action, used with certain nouns that name it, such as a leap, a turn, or a blow. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To do an action such as a jump, a blow, or a short walk.
   - _Let's fetch a turn around the orchard before the rain comes._
   - _The stag fetched a great leap over the stream and was gone._
18. To bring someone back to consciousness after a faint; to revive, sometimes in the form fetch someone to. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To wake someone up after they have fainted.
   - _A splash of cold water fetched her to, and she sat up blinking._
   - _A whiff of smelling salts can fetch a fainted man to in seconds._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The source of an attraction; a force, tendency, or quality that attracts.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–13, 15–18** — The verb comes from Middle English fecchen, from Old English feċċan ("to fetch, bring"), a variant of fetian, from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną ("to hold, seize; to fetch"), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- ("to step, walk"). It is related to Dutch vatten, German fassen ("to catch, grasp") and Swedish fatta; the noun comes from the verb.
**Meaning 14** — Of uncertain origin. Suggested sources include fetch-life (an obsolete word for a spirit that guides the soul of a dead person), a supposed Old English *fæcce ("evil spirit"), and Old Irish fáith ("seer, soothsayer").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/fetch (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).