I've just never seen the use of the word "fetched" in this context before

Quote:

Dislodged Cedar Rapids buildings fetched up against bridge.

See the attached for the actual screen shot of the text:

 

fetch  
A verb
 1  bring, get, convey, 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"  
  Category Tree:
move; displace
╚transmit; transfer; transport; channel; channelize; channelise
╚bring, get, convey, fetch
╚deliver
╚retrieve
 2  fetch
 
   take away or remove; "The devil will fetch you!"  
  Category Tree:
move; displace
╚transport; carry
╚bring; convey; take
╚fetch
 3  fetch, bring in, bring
 
   be sold for a certain price; "The painting brought $10,000"; "The old print fetched a high price at the auction"  

I guess if you try really hard you can justify using it like that

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>

Agreed.  But JAE, what word would you have used?  I can't think of a simple word to describe that image.  If it were a beach, "washed up" would work.

- Steve

it is a slightly odd usage of definition ...   "displace", "transported"

I would simply say:

Dislodged Cedar Rapids buildings PUSHED up against bridge.

Maybe "caught" or "piled"...

smashed ? blown ? washed up ?
"damaged buildings against the bridge"
possibly even flotsam, as they were floated off their foundations ?

Nautically speaking, "fetch" is the distance of open water that wind blows over.

The shoreline at the downwind end of a fetch will collect all manor of wind-driven flotsam and jetsam.

So I could understand - but have never heard used - "fetched" in relation to the crap that accumulates on a shoreline due to wind.

Having gotten this far, the buildings in the picture got there due to the influence of water, not wind.  Therefore, I think "fetched" is incorrect in the context of the picture.

Not my part of the world, but I always thought "fetched up" was american english for "ended up"


.... as opposed to slightly archaic english english where it is used in the context of "nearly fetched up my breakfast"

A.

Although I have not looked it up, I believe Mark Twain used the phrase "fetched up" in exactly this way, as did other writers of his time.

good enough for me.

"
fetch up
One entry found.

fetch up


Main Entry:
    fetch up
Function:
    verb
Date:
    1599

transitive verb
1 : to bring up or out : produce 2 : to make up (as lost time) 3 : to bring to a stop intransitive verb : to reach a standstill, stopping place, or goal : end up <may have fetched up running a village store — Geoffrey Household>"

Merriam-Webster free online dictionary


 

It would be correct to say that the buildings allided with the bridge.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

"Fetched up" is a common, perfectly fine non-standard American English phrase, which us folks away from the citified regions use in this context.  I would expect to see it in a news story only when the writer wishes to appear "colorful" or "regional".  Given that the flood happened in Iowa, maybe that was intentional.

I've heard, and used, 'fetched up' in that sense, as in, 'the boat was fetched up on the shore', or, 'the lawmower got fetched up in a big tangle of rope'

Similar to 'hung up' or 'tangled up'.

To me (NB Canada), it would be a common useage.

Professionally I wouldnt suggest it but:

Since these houses are now on public property if you entered one of these houses would you actually be trespassing?

Quote (RWF7437):

Although I have not looked it up, I believe Mark Twain used the phrase "fetched up" in exactly this way, as did other writers of his time.

Ironically, this article is by a man named Tom Sawyer!
 

"fetched" means "brought to a location".  "Fetched up" is not a common usage but I have heard it used in this manner before.  It sounds a bit quaint, though.

old field guy

I'm sure if you delved deep enough you would find it is just olde English - it sounds perfectly ok to me, maybe due to the fact that I am in the middle of reading the original French to English translation of Arabian Nights' Entertainments (1001 Nights).

As a footnote to anyone who hasn't taken the opportunity to read it - it is certainly a good but sometimes difficult read.  

Little Oxford English Dictionary, 8th Ed:  definition 3:  (fetch up) informal arrive or come to rest somewhere.  Think this is pretty much right on.  Although the bridge seems to be a "dam" for debris!

Where the hell y'all from ya never heard "fetched up against"?

Hg

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Hmm, my Little OED doesn't have that description (5th ed. 1980).  It does have fetching which I've not heard anyone use in years.  Maybe it's time to get a new one?

- Steve

Oxford Advanced Learners 6th ed.2001 fetch up - (informal especially BrE) - to arrive somewhere without planning.

 

What you need is a bigger dic. Chambers says

Fetch up... to come to a stop.

 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

Is your dic bigger than my dic

Dunno. Mine's big and red and covered in paper. Oh well, that's a RF

 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

Mine's frequently thumbed and has bits hanging off of it.

- Steve

when I was teaching in Thailand it was always good for a snigger when the students, mainly female spoke about their talking dic's

Steve - sounds nasty. I think you can get some cream for that.

Bill

HgTX - I can see the term used in San Antonio, but in Iowa?

I would have said the houses were pinned against the bridge by the current.

 

Dunno, I'm pretty sure I've used "fetched up against" most of my life, and most of my life has been north of the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi.  It doesn't mean pinned against by the current; once the current subsides, it'll still be there.  I think I use it exclusively in the context of something carried along by water, though, not wind or volition.  But if somone said that the tumbleweeds fetched up against the fence, I probably wouldn't assume that there had been flooding in the desert.

Hg

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May I comment on this discussion? I wrote a blog about it that I would like to call to your attention, and I would like to engage the respondents to that blog with you as well.

it is a wonderful site you have going here, More word-power to us all.
Tom Sawyer, ENR

Tom, if you're asking for permission; go for it.

If someone takes offence your post will be red flagged and probably removed.

I never even heard the term "feteched up" before this minute. :)  I would say it's not a term in very common usage at the national level; more of a regional term.

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

around here we just use piled, we get to use it at least every other year for some bridge in the state.
My question is are the engineering improvements mentioned in the caption to the bridge or the houses. After all most the houses are standing tall too :)

Luck is a difficult thing to verify and therefore should be tested often. - Me

Another use for the word fetch found on the site.  DRC1, a geotechnical engineer, referred to a pile which failed to "fetch up".  I like it.

Whereas I use the word fetch from time to time, I usually use it in the sense of a Beverly Hillbilly's type comment like "I went to the ice box and fetched me a cold one."  Or, (and how about this) "Woman, fetch me a cold brew" said loudly to an empty house when she is off to the grocery store or somewhere like that.  In the case of my vivid imagination, where she acually brings me the beer, I would say, "well, I guess she fetched that to me real good."

In the case in the OT, I would have said the river current fetched the house up against the bridge meaning that the action was by the river.  So I guess in that sense, I guess you could say since the current did it, once it was done it was fetched up against the bridge.

rmw

It was more pushed than gotten though, right?

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

If I was naughty as a child my dad would often say to me "Behave yourself otherwise I'll fetch you one round the lug 'ole".  This is an example of the UK's Black Country dialect - in this case "I'll fetch you one round the lug 'ole" means "I'll give you a smack round the earhole".

Sounds like something my Gorgie would have said.  

--Gordie dad --