fetch Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the action of fetching
  2. verb go or come after and bring or take back
    bring; convey; get.
    • Get me those books over there, please
    • Could you bring the wine?
    • The dog fetched the hat
  3. verb be sold for a certain price
    bring; bring in.
    • The painting brought $10,000
    • The old print fetched a high price at the auction
  4. verb take away or remove
    • The devil will fetch you!

WordNet

Fetch transitive verb
Etymology
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.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Fetched 2; present participle & verbal noun Fetching
Definitions
  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.
fetch intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To bring one's self; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward. Totten.
Fetch noun
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913