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1607. Dekker, Westward Ho! Act ii., Sc. 2. Earl. Ha! Bird. O, I thought I should fetch you: you can 'ha' at that; I'll make you hem anon.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, II. This will fetch 'em, And make them haste towards their gulling more. A man must deal like a rough nurse, and fright Those that are froward, to an appetite.
1727. Gay, Beggars Opera, Act I., Sc. 8. Polly. Give her another glass, Sir; my Mama drinks double the quantity whenever she is out of order. This, you see, fetches her.
1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. v., p. 48 (1873). But now he was certainly fetched, as his friends would call it, and began to feel an interest in Miss Townshend, which he had never felt for any other person.
1867-70. C. G. Leland, Hans. Breitmann's Ballads. Dot fetched him. He shtood all shpell-bound.
1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xvii. She was quite clever enough to take on any part that might best commend her to the people she sought to please; and she thought she had hit upon the best way to fetch Gabrielle, as she would herself have put it.
1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond. of Men, ch. xxx. You shall be my assistant: you shall play the piano and come on dressed in a pink costoom, which generally fetches at an entertainment.
1883. Referee, 1 April, p. 2, col. 4. There were scenes, though, wherein she fairly fetched her audience.
1884. S. L. Clemens ('M. Twain'), Huckleberry Finn, xxi., 205. Hamlet's soliloquy, you know; the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare. Ah, it's sublime, sublime! Always fetches the house.
1884. G. A. Sala, in Ill. Lon. News, 17 May, p. 470, col. 3. The maritime conflagration fetched the audience, especially the pit and gallery.
2. (colloquial).—To get; to do.
[Some combinations are To fetch the farm = to get infirmary treatment and diet; To fetch a stinger (colloquial) = to get in a heavy blow; To fetch a lagging (thieves') = to serve one's term; To fetch a howl = to cry; To fetch a crack = to strike; To fetch a circumbendibus = to make a detour; To fetch the brewer = to get drunk.]
To fetch away, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To part; e.g., 'a fool and his money are soon fetched away.'
To fetch up, verb. phr. (common).—1. To stop; to run against.
2. (popular).—to startle.
3. (American).—To come to light.
4. (common).—To recruit one's strength after illness.
Fetching, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Attractive (as of women); pleasing (as of a dress or bonnet).
c. 1882. Broadside Ballad. 'You May Lay Odds on That.' Some most fetching dresses the ladies now wear, You may lay odds on that.
1889. Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, 17 August, p. 262, col. 2. How can they show off a pretty figure and a fetching bathing costume if they go in further than knee deep?
1889. Bird o' Freedom, 7 Aug., p. 3. Quite delighted at being at last understood and appreciated by one of the fetching sex, Stewart made the running so fast that I couldn't see the way he went.
Fettle. In good or in proper
fettle, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Drunk.
[From provincial
English fettle = a state of
fitness.]
Few. A few, or Just a few, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Originally (cf., quot., 1778) a little. Hence, by implication, on the lucus a non lucendo principle, considerably; e.g., 'Were you alarmed?' 'No, but I was astonished a few!' i.e., 'I was greatly surprised. Cf., rather = a good deal.
