The vb.-stem in comb. with adv., as fetch-after, see quot. 1888; with sb. as obj. † fetch-fire attrib.; fetch-water, a water-carrier.
1598. Chapman, Iliad, VI. 495. But spin the Greek wives’ webs of task, and their fetch-water be.
1784. Unfortunate Sensibility, II. 10. In a country-town a much less change would have been a sufficient topic for a fetch-fire gossip, or a bake-house conversation.
1888. Lancet, 30 June, 1308. The forms of caterpillar known … popularly … as ‘fetch-afters,’ from their mode of progression.
