fetch and carry

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Do errands and other menial tasks, as in She was hired as administrative assistant, but all she does is fetch and carry for the department's supervisor. This expression originally alluded to dogs that were taught to carry various objects for their masters. It has been applied to humans since the late 1700s.

QUIZ

TAKE JOY IN ACING THIS QUIZ ON “PRIDE” SYNONYMS

Hold your head up high as you embark on this quiz that explores some of the synonyms and meanings of “pride.”

Question 1 of 7

What does "dignity" mean?

showing self-respect

treating others with kindness

acting selfishly

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Words nearby fetch and carry

fetal souffle, fetal tissue transplant, fetal warfarin syndrome, fetation, fetch, fetch and carry, fetched, fetcher, fetching, fetch up, fete

How to use fetch and carry in a sentence

As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
As this list shows, punishments typically run to a short-ish jail sentence and/or a moderately hefty fine.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
You just travel light with carry-on luggage, go to cities that you love, and get to hang out with all your friends.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The various members met for the first time when they traveled to Gambia at the beginning of December to carry out their plan.
The Shadowy U.S. Veteran Who Tried to Overthrow a Country|Jacob Siegel|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST

In one of the activities men practiced putting the dolls gingerly on their backs to carry them.
How Good Dads Can Change the World|Gary Barker, PhD, Michael Kaufman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
She also practises etching, pen-and-ink drawing, as well as crayon and water-color sketching.
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.|Clara Erskine Clement
The occasion should be seized also to increase the balances of depositors who carry unprofitable accounts.
Readings in Money and Banking|Chester Arthur Phillips
They will carry out the dictum of Carlyle that the modern university is a university of books.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
It was little better than coal dust, and would not carry a ball fifty paces to kill or wound.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift