Fĕtch1, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. FETCHED (fĕtcht); p. pr. & vb. n. FETCHING.] [A-S. fetian, to fetch, bring to, fetian vif, equivalent to fatan vif, to marry; cf. Lat. ducere uxorem; cf. A-S. fecan, to draw, lead; feccan, to lead, take, facjan, to acquire, O. Fries. faka, to prepare.]
Sense 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 bring; to get.
Time will run back and fetch the age of gold. Spenser.
And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub. Milton.
Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids. Gen. xxvii. 9.
Sense 2. To bring; as, (a.) To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
Silver in the coin will never fetch as much as silver in the bullion. Locke.
(b.) To recall from a swoon; — sometimes with to. Bacon. (c.) To reduce; to throw.
The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground. South.
(d.) With prepositions, as up, out; to fetch up, to fetch out, and the like.
Sense 3. To bring to accomplishment; to make; to do; to perform, with certain objects; as, to fetch a turn, round, or compass; to fetch a bound or leap; to fetch a sigh or groan; to fetch a blow or stroke.
I’ll fetch a turn about the garden. Shak.
He fetches his blow quick and sure. South.
Sense 4. To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by striking. “We fetched the siren’s isle.” Chapman.
The conditions and improvements of weapons are the fetching afar off. Bacon.
To fetch a pump, to pour water into it to make it draw water.—To fetch way (Naut.), to be shaken from one side to the other. Falconer.