fetch
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fetch¹
- /fɛt͡ʃ/ US, UK
- /fɑt͡ʃ/
Rhymes with -ɛtʃ
Where it comes from
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”), Danish fatte (“to grasp, understand”), Swedish fatta (“to grasp, understand”), Icelandic feta (“to go, step”), West Frisian fetsje (“to grasp”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
verb fetches · fetching · fetched · fatch · fotch
- To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get. You have to fetch some sugar in order to proceed with the recipe.
- To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for. Our native horses[…] were held in small esteem, and fetched low prices.
- To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing. to fetch headway or sternway
- To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
- 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.
- To cause to come; to bring to a particular state. They couldn't fetch the butter in the churn.
- To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to. to fetch a man to
- To reduce; to throw. The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground.
- To accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions. to fetch a compass; to fetch a leap
- To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle. [Neptune] himself fetched the earth a swashing blow with his trident, causing it to quake like a jelly.
Similar: collect
noun fetches
- An act of fetching, of bringing something from a distance.
- An act of fetching data. a fetch from a cache
- The object of fetching; the source of an attraction; a force, propensity, or quality which attracts.
- 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.
- 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 […]
-
A stratagem or trick; an artifice.
They used cunning fetches to swindle money out of the gullible.
Similar: contrivance, dodge
- A game played with a dog in which a person throws an object for the dog to retrieve.
interjection
- Minced oath for fuck.
fetch²
- /fɛt͡ʃ/ US, UK
- /fɑt͡ʃ/
Rhymes with -ɛtʃ
Where it comes from
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”).
noun fetches
- 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 the next of kin to present her with a fresher set of weeds: an appeal so frequentl
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: get, bring, bring in, convey, pull in, draw in, pull, draw, attract, retrieval, retrieving, recover, retrieve, recovery, reclaim, recovering
verb
Similar: collect
Translations
Every language
verb to retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get
| Español | traer, buscar, ir por, ir a por, recoger, ir a buscar |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 가지고 오다 gajigo oda |
| 日本語 | 持ち帰る mochikaeru |
| 中文 | 取 qǔ |
| Português | buscar |
| Français | ramener, rapporter, aller chercher |
| Deutsch | holen |
| Italiano | riportare, recuperare, ritrovare, ripescare, rintracciare |
| Română | aduce |
| Русский | приноси́ть prinosítʹ, принести́ prinestí, ехать jexatʹ |
| Tiếng Việt | tìm |
| العربية | جَلَبَ jalaba |
| עברית | הביא, השיג |
verb to obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for
| Español | venderse |
|---|---|
| Français | rapporter |
| Deutsch | einbringen, hereinholen |
| Italiano | valere, racimolare |
verb to cause to come; to bring to a particular state
| Deutsch | schaffen, hinlegen, vollführen |
|---|---|
| Italiano | raccattare |
noun computing
| 日本語 | フェッチ fecchi |
|---|
Talk about this word "fetch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fetch. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026. fetch. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fetch "fetch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 5, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fetch.Cite this
@misc{fetch_2026,
title = {fetch},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fetch},
urldate = {2026-11-05}
}
