fetch

Minced oath for fuck.

Interjection

  1. Minced oath for fuck.

Origin

The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen (“to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure”) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (“to fetch, bring; to draw; to gain, take; to seek”), a variant of fetian, fatian (“to bring near, fetch; to acquire, obtain; to bring on, induce; to fetch a wife, marry”) and possibly related to Old English facian, fācian (“to acquire, obtain; to try to obtain; to get; to get to, reach”), both from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to hold, seize; to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). The English word is cognate with Dutch vatten (“to apprehend, catch; to grasp; to understand”), German fassen (“to catch, grasp; to capture, seize”), English fet (“(obsolete) to fetch”), Faroese fata (“to grasp, understand”),...

Noun also, figuratively

  1. An act of fetching, of bringing something from a distance.

    1. (computing, specifically) An 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:
    • 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 […] -...
    • 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...
  5. A stratagem or trick; an artifice.
    • They used cunning fetches to swindle money out of the gullible.
    • 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:...

    Synonyms: contrivance dodge

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

Forms

fetches

Derived

fetch quest

Noun dialectal

  1. The 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”).
    • 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...
    • 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...
    • 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...

Origin

Uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From fetch-life (“(obsolete, rare) a deity, spirit, etc., who guides the soul of a dead person to the afterlife; a psychopomp”). * From the supposed Old English *fæcce (“evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; a mare”). * From Old Irish fáith (“seer, soothsayer”).

Forms

fetches

Related

make fetch happen

Derived

fetch candle

Verb

  1. To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get.
    • You have to fetch some sugar in order to proceed with the recipe.
    • I'm thirsty. Can you fetch me a glass of water, please?
    • 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),...
  2. To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
    • 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...
    • 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...
    • 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...
  3. To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
    • to fetch headway or sternway
    • 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...
  4. To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
  5. To 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...
  6. To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
    • They couldn't fetch the butter in the churn. - 1879, William Barnes, A Witch:
  7. To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to.
    • to fetch a man to
    • 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...
  8. To reduce; to throw.
    • The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground. - 1692, Robert South, sermon 28
  9. To accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions.
    • to fetch a compass; to fetch a leap
    • 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:...
    • Ixion[…]turn'd dancer, does nothing but cut capreols, fetch friskals, and leads lavaltoes - 1631, Ben Jonson, Chloridia:
  10. To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.

Forms

fetches fetching fetched fatch fotch

Synonyms

collect

Derived

farfetch fetchable fetcher fetchy misfetch prefetch refetch unfetchable unfetched fetch about fetch a compass fetch and carry fetch away fetch a wife fetch in fetch off fetch quest fetch up fetch way