fetch

¹ American  

[fech] / fɛtʃ /

verb (used with object)

• fetches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fetched,
  past participle,  past
• fetching
  present participle

1. to go and bring back; return with; get.

   to go up a hill to fetch a pail of water.

2. to cause to come; bring.

   to fetch a doctor.

3. to sell for or bring (a price, financial return, etc.).

   The horse fetched $50 more than it cost.

4. Informal. to charm; captivate.

   Her beauty fetched the coldest hearts.

5. to take (a breath).

6. to utter (a sigh, groan, etc.).

7. to deal or deliver (a stroke, blow, etc.).

8. to perform or execute (a movement, step, leap, etc.).

9. Chiefly Nautical and British Dialect. to reach; arrive at.

   to fetch port.

10. Hunting. (of a dog) to retrieve (game).

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verb (used without object)

• fetches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fetched,
  past participle,  past
• fetching
  present participle

1. to go and bring things.

2. Chiefly Nautical. to move or maneuver.

3. Hunting. to retrieve game (often used as a command to a dog).

4. to go by an indirect route; circle (often followed by around orabout ).

   We fetched around through the outer suburbs.

noun

1. the act of fetching.

2. the distance of fetching.

   a long fetch.

3. Oceanography.

   1. an area where ocean waves are being generated by the wind.

   2. the length of such an area.

4. the reach or stretch of a thing.

5. a trick; dodge.

verb phrase

1. fetch about (of a sailing vessel) to come onto a new tack.

2. fetch up

   1. Informal. to arrive or stop.

   2. Older Use. to raise (children); bring up.

      She had to fetch up her younger sisters.

   3. Nautical. (of a vessel) to come to a halt, as by lowering an anchor or running aground; bring up.

idioms

1. fetch and carry, to perform menial tasks.

fetch ² American  

[fech] / fɛtʃ /

noun

1. wraith.

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fetch ¹ British  

/ fɛtʃ /

verb

1. to go after and bring back; get

   to fetch help

2. to cause to come; bring or draw forth

   the noise fetched him from the cellar

3. (also intr) to cost or sell for (a certain price)

   the table fetched six hundred pounds

4. to utter (a sigh, groan, etc)

5. informal to deal (a blow, slap, etc)

6. (also intr) nautical to arrive at or proceed by sailing

7. informal to attract

   to be fetched by an idea

8. (used esp as a command to dogs) to retrieve (shot game, an object thrown, etc)

9. rare to draw in (a breath, gasp, etc), esp with difficulty

10. to perform menial tasks or run errands

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noun

1. the reach, stretch, etc, of a mechanism

2. a trick or stratagem

3. the distance in the direction of the prevailing wind that air or water can travel continuously without obstruction

fetch ² British  

/ fɛtʃ /

noun

1. the ghost or apparition of a living person

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Usage

What else does fetch mean? Fetch is slang for “cool” or “awesome" and is not, in fact, from England. It started as a joke in the movie Mean Girls, only to catch on off-screen.

Synonym Usage

See bring.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fetcher
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• fetching
  present
• fetched
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fetch
  simple
• fetches
  simple
• have fetched
  perfect
• has fetched
  perfect
• am fetching
  progressive
• are fetching
  progressive
• is fetching
  progressive
• have been fetching
  perfect progressive
• has been fetching
  perfect progressive

Past

• fetched
  simple
• had fetched
  perfect
• was fetching
  progressive
• were fetching
  progressive
• had been fetching
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fetch
  simple
• will have fetched
  perfect
• will be fetching
  progressive
• will have been fetching
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of fetch¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English fecchen, facchen, Old English fecc(e)an, fæccan “to bring back”; akin to German fassen “to grasp”

Origin of fetch²

First recorded in 1780–90; origin unknown; perhaps short for fetch-life one sent to fetch the soul of a dying person

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Explanation

To fetch something is to go and get it. "Go fetch!" you might shout after your dog while throwing a stick into the yard. Fetch comes from the Old English fatian meaning "grasp." When a dog fetches a bone, it grasps it in its mouth. You can ask your sister to fetch or grab your backpack off the table. If you sell something for a good price, you can fetch, or bring in, a decent amount of money. If you are sick of playing fetch, you might try to fetch a good price for your pooch.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fetch fetches fetched fetching

The sale of Mercury's notebook offered "an extraordinary glimpse into his songwriting, and seeing it fetch the day's highest price was another highlight", Hochman added.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

In New Orleans, a federal contractor told MarketWatch that the condo he paid $90,000 for in 2005 would fetch at most $110,000 two decades on if he were to sell, per his estimates.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

The dress, designed by Christina Stambolian, is estimated to fetch between $150,000 and $300,000, with some proceeds going to charity.

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

The property is up for sale, with brokers expecting it to fetch no more than $130 million.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

“Ah! that pricks pride. Well, fetch me your portfolio, if you can vouch for its contents being original; but don’t pass your word unless you are certain: I can recognise patchwork.”

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Thrifted Wilt Chamberlain jacket fetches $89,600 at auction.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026

Conagra fetches about 9.8 times forward earnings, a nearly 60% discount to the S&P 500.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

L’Oréal stock fetches about 28 times expected earnings for 2026, a premium to Nestlé.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

That basket now fetches a nearly 40% discount.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026

Mohammad fetches a doctor, who sits next to me.

From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell

Four years ago, one of the brand’s mint-condition watches fetched 51% of its original value at resale, 10 percentage points higher than today.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

Hugging Face fetched a private-market valuation of $4.5 billion back in 2023.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026

The company is expected to fetch a valuation well above the $11 billion valuation it fetched in a funding round last year, the people said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

An animated Gabriel the Toad character and an illustration of Nogbad firing a cannon at the Ice Dragon both fetched £4,200.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

I fetched a straw sombrero Grandma had given us in Arizona.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

The three items were sold to a British private collector at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in the Cotswolds on Wednesday, fetching a hammer price of £5,000 - double the estimate.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Bullish investors will point to the high prices that AI processing power is fetching in the market: Due to infrastructure bottlenecks, buyers are paying, on average, over $20 billion per gigawatt annually.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

The price tag some vintage graphic T-shirts were fetching at a recent ThriftCon clothing convention in New York City.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

More than 3.5 million people applied for invitation codes for early access, with some codes fetching thousands of dollars on online resale markets.

From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026

Jane’s solicitude about fetching her own letters had not escaped Emma.

From "Emma" by Jane Austen

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Related Words

• carry
• earn
• go for
• obtain
• produce
• retrieve
• sell
• sell for
• yield

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