[f. FETCH v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. FETCH in various senses. † Fetching of boards: = tacking: see BOARD sb. 15.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 890.
| Swich wreche on hem, for fecchyng of Eleyne, | |
| Ther shal ben take or-that we hennes wende. |
1464. Nottingham Rec., II. 377. Item for fecchyng of money at Retforde by ij. tymes … viijd.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xx. (1887), 84. To procure easie fetching of ones breath, it is verie soueraine.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. III. v. 216. Let me live (to chose) in a spacious Countrey, where a man may have Sea-roome enough, and not be driven to run through narrow Streights and Creeks, sayling stil in the Channell, where there is few fetching of boords, nor any danger of being cast away upon the coast.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. (1691), 76. Fuel costs nothing but fetching.
1727. De Foe, A System of Magic, I. iii. (1840), 89. It was apparently a favour bestowed on the Sabeans and on the Chaldeans, to give them Job’s goods merely for fetching.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, I. ii. 57. ‘Did he go about to clubs and places making inquiries, like a private detective?’ said Christabel, still contemptuous; ‘I hate such fetching and carrying!’
1884. H. M. Leathes, Notes Nat. Hist., 110. Their [dogs’] natural propensities for hunting, watching, and fetching.
2. With again, up, etc.: see adv. combs. of verb.
1513. More, in Grafton, Chron., II. 770. The fetching forth of this noble man to his honour and welth.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 252. No such smart as that which is caused by the reuiuing and fetching againe of a decayed Christian.
1633. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 205. The fetching up my soul from this vale of misery and tears.
1673. Penn, Chr. a Quaker, xxii. 588. It is not Fetching in this Thought … that gives Right Peace.
