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Fetch vs Seek - What's the difference?

fetch | seek |

As verbs the difference between fetch and seek

is that fetch is to retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get while seek is to try to find, to look for, to search.

As a noun fetch

is the object of fetching; the source and origin of attraction; a force, quality or propensity which is attracting eg., in a given attribute of person, place, object, principle, etc.

As an adjective fetch

is attractive, popular.

fetch

English

(wikipedia fetch)

Alternative forms

* (l), (l) (dialectal)

Verb

  • To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get.
  • * Bible, 1 (w) xvii. 11, 12
  • He called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
  • * 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
  • When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and planted the Mole in an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a dressing-gown and slippers for him, and told him river stories till supper-time.
  • To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
  • * (1800-1859)
  • Our native horses were held in small esteem, and fetched low prices.
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
  • (label) To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
  • to fetch headway or sternway
  • * (George Chapman) (1559-1634)
  • Meantime flew our ships, and straight we fetched / The siren's isle.
  • (label) To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
  • To take (a breath), to heave (a sigh)
  • * 1899 , (Joseph Conrad),
  • The hurt n***** moaned feebly somewhere near by, and then fetched a deep sigh that made me mend my pace away from there.
  • To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
  • * (William Barnes) (1801-1886)
  • They couldn't fetch the butter in the churn.
  • (obsolete) To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to .
  • * (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • Fetching men again when they swoon.
  • To reduce; to throw.
  • * (Robert South) (1634–1716)
  • The sudden trip in wrestling that fetches a man to the ground.
  • To bring to accomplishment; to achieve; to make; to perform, with certain objects.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I'll fetch a turn about the garden.
  • * (Robert South) (1634–1716)
  • He fetches his blow quick and sure.
  • To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.
  • Derived terms

    * fetch away * fetch and carry * fetch a wife * fetch up * prefetch

    Noun

    (es)
  • The object of fetching; the source and origin of attraction; a force, quality or propensity which is attracting eg., in a given attribute of person, place, object, principle, etc.
  • 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.
  • * 1665 , Robert South, "Jesus of Nazareth proved the true and only promised Messiah", in ''Twelve Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 3, 6th Edition, 1727
  • Every little fetch of wit and criticism.
  • The apparition of a living person; a wraith; one's double (seeing it is supposed to be a sign that one is fey or fated to die)
  • * 1921 , Sterling Andrus Leonard, The Atlantic book of modern plays .
  • but see only the "fetch " or double of one of them, foretelling her death.
  • * 1844 , (Charles Dickens), (The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit) , Page 236
  • The very fetch and ghost of Mrs. Gamp.
  • (computing) The act of fetching data.
  • a fetch from a cache

    Derived terms

    * fetch candle

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (rfv-sense) (slang) attractive, popular
  • seek

    English

    Verb

  • (lb) To try to find, to look for, to search.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
  • (label) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
  • :
  • *Bible, (w) xi. 16
  • *:Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.
  • *1960 , (Lobsang Rampa), :
  • *:“My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.
  • (lb) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
  • :
  • *1880 , , :
  • *:But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.
  • *1886 , Constantine Popoff, translation of (Leo Tolstoy)'s :
  • *:I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
  • To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
  • :
  • *, Bk.V:
  • *:Ryght so he sought towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes
  • (lb) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.
  • *:
  • *:Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
  • *1726 (tr.), (Alexander Pope), ''(Homer)'s (Odyssey), Book II, line 33
  • *:Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains
  • Quotations

    Synonyms

    * look for * search

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)