Fetch vs. Retrieve — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Fetch and Retrieve
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Compare with Definitions
Fetch
Go for and then bring back (someone or something) for someone
He ran to fetch help
She fetched me a cup of tea
Retrieve
Get or bring (something) back from somewhere
Steven stooped and retrieved his hat
I was sent to retrieve the balls from his garden
Fetch
Achieve (a particular price) when sold
The land could fetch over a million pounds
Retrieve
Find or extract (information stored in a computer)
Other features include the ability to store, update, retrieve, and print your data
Fetch
Inflict (a blow or slap) on (someone)
That brute Cullam fetched him a wallop
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Retrieve
Put right or improve (an unwelcome situation)
He made one last desperate attempt to retrieve the situation
Fetch
Cause great interest or delight in (someone)
That air of his always fetches women
Retrieve
An act of retrieving something, especially game that has been shot
Watch the dog make the long retrieves
Fetch
The distance travelled by wind or waves across open water.
Retrieve
The possibility of recovery
He ruined himself beyond retrieve
Fetch
A stratagem or trick.
Retrieve
To get back into one's grasp, possession, or control, especially from a known place or a place of storage
Retrieved his coat from the closet.
Fetch
The apparition or double of a living person, formerly believed to be a warning of that person's impending death.
Retrieve
To go to and bring or escort back (someone)
Retrieved his friend from the bus station.
Fetch
To come or go after and take or bring back
The puppy fetched the stick that I had tossed.
Retrieve
To search for, find, and bring back
Divers retrieving artifacts from a shipwreck.
Fetch
To cause to come.
Retrieve
To search for, find, and carry back (killed game or a thrown object). Used of dogs.
Fetch
To bring in as a price
Fetched a thousand dollars at auction.
Retrieve
To gain access to (stored information).
Fetch
To interest or attract.
Retrieve
To recall to mind (a memory, for example); remember.
Fetch
To draw in (breath); inhale.
Retrieve
To rescue or save
Tried to retrieve him from the degradation of life as a runaway.
Fetch
To bring forth (a sigh, for example) with obvious effort.
Retrieve
(Sports) To make a difficult but successful return of (a ball or shuttlecock, as in tennis or badminton).
Fetch
(Informal) To deliver (a blow) by striking; deal.
Retrieve
To restore to a former or desirable condition
Did whatever he could to retrieve his honor.
Fetch
(Nautical) To arrive at; reach
Fetched port after a month at sea.
Retrieve
To rectify the unfavorable consequences of; remedy
"An attempt was made to retrieve the blunder" (Francis Parkman).
Fetch
To go after something and return with it.
Retrieve
To find and bring back game or a thrown object
A dog trained to retrieve.
Fetch
To retrieve killed game. Used of a hunting dog.
Retrieve
The act of retrieving; retrieval.
Fetch
To take an indirect route.
Retrieve
(Sports) A difficult but successful return of a ball or shuttlecock.
Fetch
To hold a course.
Retrieve
(transitive) To regain or get back something.
To retrieve one's character or independence; to retrieve a thrown ball
Fetch
To turn about; veer.
Retrieve
(transitive) To rescue (a creature).
Fetch
The act or an instance of fetching.
Retrieve
(transitive) To salvage something
Fetch
A stratagem or trick.
Retrieve
(transitive) To remedy or rectify something.
Fetch
The distance over which a wind blows.
Retrieve
(transitive) To remember or recall something.
Fetch
The distance traveled by waves with no obstruction.
Retrieve
(transitive) To fetch or carry back something, especially (computing) a file or data record.
Fetch
A ghost; an apparition.
Retrieve
(transitive) To fetch and bring in game.
The cook doesn't care what's shot, only what's actually retrieved.
Fetch
A doppelgänger.
Retrieve
(intransitive) To fetch and bring in game systematically.
Dog breeds called 'retrievers' were selected for retrieving.
Fetch
To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get.
Retrieve
(intransitive) To fetch or carry back systematically, notably as a game.
Most dogs love retrieving, regardless of what object is thrown.
Fetch
To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
If you put some new tyres on it, and clean it up a bit, the car should fetch about $5,000
Retrieve
To make a difficult but successful return of the ball.
Fetch
(nautical) To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
To fetch headway or sternway
Retrieve
(obsolete) To remedy the evil consequence of, to repair (a loss or damage).
Fetch
(intransitive) To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
Retrieve
A retrieval
Fetch
To take (a breath), to heave (a sigh)
Retrieve
(sports) The return of a difficult ball
Fetch
To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
Retrieve
(obsolete) A seeking again; a discovery.
Fetch
(obsolete) To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to.
To fetch a man to
Retrieve
(obsolete) The recovery of game once sprung.
Fetch
To reduce; to throw.
Retrieve
To find again; to recover; to regain; to restore from loss or injury; as, to retrieve one's character; to retrieve independence.
With late repentance now they would retrieveThe bodies they forsook, and wish to live.
Fetch
(archaic) To accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions.
To fetch a compass;
To fetch a leap
Retrieve
To recall; to bring back.
To retrieve them from their cold, trivial conceits.
Fetch
To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.
Retrieve
To remedy the evil consequence of, to repair, as a loss or damadge.
Accept my sorrow, and retrieve my fall.
There is much to be done . . . and much to be retrieved.
Fetch
An act of fetching, of bringing something from a distance.
Retrieve
To discover and bring in game that has been killed or wounded; as, a dog naturally inclined to retrieve.
Fetch
An act of fetching data.
A fetch from a cache
Retrieve
A seeking again; a discovery.
Fetch
The object of fetching; the source of an attraction; a force, propensity, or quality which attracts.
Retrieve
The recovery of game once sprung; - an old sporting term.
Fetch
An area over which wind is blowing (over water) and generating waves.
Retrieve
Get or find back; recover the use of;
She regained control of herself
She found her voice and replied quickly
Fetch
The length of such an area; the distance a wave can travel across a body of water (without obstruction).
Retrieve
Of trained dogs
Fetch
A stratagem or trick; an artifice.
Retrieve
Recall knowledge from memory; have a recollection;
I can't remember saying any such thing
I can't think what her last name was
Can you remember her phone number?
Do you remember that he once loved you?
Call up memories
Fetch
The apparition of a living person; a person's double, the sight of which is supposedly a sign that they are fated to die soon, a doppelganger; a ghost]], a spectre.
Fetch
(Utah) Minced oath for fuck.
Fetch
To bear toward the person speaking, or the person or thing from whose point of view the action is contemplated; to go and bring; to get.
Time will run back and fetch the age of gold.
He called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
Fetch
To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
Our native horses were held in small esteem, and fetched low prices.
Fetch
To recall from a swoon; to revive; - sometimes with to; as, to fetch a man to.
Fetching men again when they swoon.
Fetch
To reduce; to throw.
The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground.
Fetch
To bring to accomplishment; to achieve; to make; to perform, with certain objects; as, to fetch a compass; to fetch a leap; to fetch a sigh.
I'll fetch a turn about the garden.
He fetches his blow quick and sure.
Fetch
To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
Meantine flew our ships, and straight we fetchedThe siren's isle.
Fetch
To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
They could n't fetch the butter in the churn.
Fetch
To bring one's self; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
Fetch
A stratagem by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass, or by which one thing seems intended and another is done; a trick; an artifice.
Every little fetch of wit and criticism.
Fetch
The apparation of a living person; a wraith.
The very fetch and ghost of Mrs. Gamp.
Fetch
The unobstructed region of the ocean over which the wind blows to generate waves.
Fetch
The length of such a region.
Fetch
Go or come after and bring or take back;
Get me those books over there, please
Could you bring the wine?
The dog fetched the hat
Fetch
Be sold for a certain price;
The painting brought $10,000
The old print fetched a high price at the auction
Fetch
Take away or remove;
The devil will fetch you!
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