Fetch sb.¹

[f. FETCH v.]

  1.  The action of fetching, bringing from a distance, or reaching after; lit. and fig.; a long stretch, a far-reaching effort. Also to take a fetch.

1549.  Chaloner, Erasmus on Folly, N iij a. In his sermon, before a great assemblie, takyng upon him to declare the mistery of the Trinitee, to the ende he myght bothe shew his learnyng to the people, & satisfie the eares of some doctours there present, toke a new fetche in his mattier.

c. 1555.  Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 88. Loe, good reader, whereas these men with all their long fine fetches and manifold arguments heaped one upon another could not yet nor never shall hereafter prove that this prohibition must be universally understood; we have proved by a formal and necessary illation fetched and deduced even from their own definition that it cannot nor may not so be taken.

1612.  Shelton, Quix., I. I. viii. 52. Nor did he hold the Fetch of Adventures to be a Labour, but rather a great Recreation and Ease, were they never so dangerous.

1662.  Glanvill, Lux Orientalis, viii. (1682), 61. Our Reasons cannot conclude what God should do, there being vast fetches in the divine wisdom which we comprehend not, nor can our natural light determine what is best. Ibid. (1681), Sadducismus, II. (1726), 450. Certainly Wit is not an odd Metaphor, or a lucky Simile, a Wild fetch, or unexpected Inference, a mimick Action, or a pretty Knack in telling of a Tale, but it is a Faculty to dive into the depth of things, to find out their Causes and Relatives, Consonancies and Disagreements, and to make fit, useful, and unobvious Applications of their respective Relations and Dependencies.

1692.  Bp. Patrick, Answ. to Touchstone, 74. From that which follows,… there is a wonderful fetch.

1831.  E. Irving, Expos. Rev., I. 354. Most deep fetches from the secrets of God, being as it were eyes of truth, seeds and kernels of knowledge.

1855.  Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, III. ii. § 14. Through the suggestion of common words, we can thus leap from one passage to another, by the remotest fetches, in an endless succession of recollections.

1881.  Shairp, Asp. Poetry, ii. 59. What but a great fetch of imaginative power?

  † b.  A ‘sweep,’ sweeping movement. Obs.

1617.  Hall, Quo Vadis, Wks. § 16. 59. So haue we seene an Hauke cast off at an Heron Shaw, to looke and flie a quite other way, and after many carelesse and overly fetches, to towre vp vnto the prey intended.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Nice Valour, IV. i.

a. 1654.  Selden, Table-t. (Arb.), 90. There are some Mathematicians, that could with one fetch of their Pen make an exact Circle, and with the next touch point out the Centre, is it therefore reasonable to banish all use of the Compasses?

  2.  A contrivance, dodge, stratagem, trick; also, a fetch of law, policy, state, and to cast a fetch.

c. 1530.  Redforde, The Play of Wit and Science (1848), 8.

1549–62.  Sternhold & H., Ps. xli. 7.

1575.  Grindal, Lett. to Burleigh, Wks. (1843), 352. Those men which seek spoil of hospitals, be it by lease or any other fetch of law, did never read the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew.

1635.  N. R., Camden’s Hist. Eliz., III. 355. The crafty fetches of the wilie Prince of Orange.

a. 1677.  Barrow, Serm. (1683), II. ix. 135. No struglings of might, no fetches of policy, no circumspection or industry of man availing to uphold it, an invisible hand checking all such force, and crossing all such devices.

1718.  Freethinker, No. 49, 8 Sept., 355. I know the Sex too well, not to understand their pettish Arts, and their Termegant Fetches.

1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 267. This might be another of their politick Fetches, to seem to disclaim all Interest in assisting us, and only to consult their own Safety.

1762.  Foote, Liar, II. Wks. 1799, I. 300. A mere fetch to favour his retreat.

1848.  Lowell, Fable for Critics, Poet. Wks. (1879), 135. A fetch, I must say, most transparent and flat.

1858.  Bushnell, Nat. & Supernat., xi. (1864), 365. It is no ingenious fetches of argument that we want.

  3.  Naut. a. An act of tacking. b. (See quots.)

  a.  1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 261. They … remayned seuen weekes abowte that cape with many fetches compassyng the wynd with theyr sayles contynually alofte, because they had a west and north weste wynd in the proos of theyr fhyppe which wolde not suffer them to passe.

1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 51. A Boat … came to take a Survey of us, and made towards us uncertainly; when after several Fetches to and again, at last they were within Call of us.

  b.  1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Fetch of a bay or gulf, the whole stretch from head to head or point to point.

1880.  T. Stevenson, in Encycl. Brit., XI. 456/2, ‘Harbors and Docks.’ The line of greatest fetch or reach of open sea. Ibid. (1882), XIV. 615/1, ‘Lighthouse.’ What is wanted is to ascertain in such shorter seas the height of waves in relation to the length of ‘fetch’ in which they are generated.

  4.  dial. a. An indrawn breath, a sigh. b. A difficulty in breathing.

1832.  W. Stephenson, Gateshead Local Poems, The Retrospect, 18.

1876.  Whitby Gloss., s.v. ‘I have a fetch and a catch,’ a stitch in the side.

1878.  Cumbrld. Gloss., Fetch, an indrawn breath.

  5.  nonce-use. A decoy-bird.

1624.  Massinger, Parl. Love, IV. iii.

  † 6.  with adv. Fetch-about: a roundabout phrase, a circumlocution. Cf. FETCH v. 11. Obs.

1540.  Coverdale, Fruitf. Less., Pref. Wks. 1844, I. 207. Though the grace of the Holy Ghost use not long fetches about.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, vi. 82. Neuerthelesse, as great an enemie as Amelius was to the Christians, yet notwithstanding after many florishes and fetches about, in the ende speaking of the second Person he yeeldeth to that which S. Iohn speaketh of him in his Gospell.