Fetch (fĕch; 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.
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.