fetching
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfɛt͡ʃɪŋ/
- Rhymes: -ɛtʃɪŋ
- Hyphenation: fetch‧ing
Audio (US) (file)
Etymology 1
From fetch + -ing.
Adjective
fetching (comparative more fetching, superlative most fetching)
- Attractive; pleasant to regard.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:attractive
- 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, OCLC 1023879857, page 171:
- Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.
- 2000, Bill Bryson, chapter 1, in In a Sunburned Country, page 11:
- I am not, I regret to say, a discreet and fetching sleeper. Most people when they nod off look as if they could do with a blanket; I look as if I could do with medical attention.
- 2015, Nancy Jo Sales, “Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse””, in Vanity Fair:
- “The men in this town have a serious case of pussy affluenza,” says Amy Watanabe, 28, the fetching, tattooed owner of Sake Bar Satsko, a lively izakaya in New York’s East Village.
Translations
Attractive; pleasant to regard
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Verb
fetching
- present participle of fetch
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.
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Etymology 2
From Middle English fetchynge, fecchynge, faching, fettynge, equivalent to fetch + -ing.
Noun
fetching (plural fetchings)
- The act by which something is fetched.
- 1834, Evidence on drunkenness: presented to the House of Commons
- These lumpers were also in the habit of inducing their men during the week to send to their pay-house for fetchings of drink, besides the money they were compelled to spend on Saturday night.
- 1834, Evidence on drunkenness: presented to the House of Commons