fetching
Syllables: fetch·ingUK/ˈfɛt͡ʃ.ɪŋ/
fetching adjective: attractive; pleasant to regard. Also the present participle and gerund of fetch.
Adjective
fetching (comparative more fetching, superlative most fetching)
- Attractive; pleasant to regard.
- Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171
- 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.2000, Bill Bryson, chapter 1, in In a Sunburned Country, page 11
- Synonyms:
- alluring, appealing, appetizing, attracting, attractive, catchy, bewitching, captivating, charming, coying
Noun
fetching (plural fetchings)
- The act by which something is fetched.
- 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
Also used as
fetching is also the present participle and gerund of fetch.
Examples of fetching in a sentence
- One or two were hurriedly fetching ropes and yelling contradictory orders, from which I deduced that Mr.
- Raising their voices and speaking in simple sentences and fetching and carrying.
- That your fetching skills are fetchier than the fetchiest.
Synonyms of fetching
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of fetching
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more fetching |
| superlative | most fetching |
| Noun | |
| plural | fetchings |
Origin of fetching
From fetch + -ing.
From Middle English fetchynge, fecchynge, faching, fettynge, equivalent to fetch + -ing.
Words formed from fetching
Phrases with fetching
Questions about fetching
- What does fetching mean?
- Fetching means attractive; pleasant to regard.
- What part of speech is fetching?
- Fetching can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce fetching?
- Fetching is pronounced /ˈfɛt͡ʃ.ɪŋ/ (UK).
Words near fetching in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fetching (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fetching.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fetching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fetching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.