fetch up

English

Verb

fetch up (third-person singular simple present fetches up, present participle fetching up, simple past and past participle fetched up)

1. (intransitive) To arrive somewhere, especially unexpectedly.
   • 1995, Junichi Saga, Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld:

     We panicked again for a moment, but the wind switched direction without warning, and we slowly drifted away till we fetched up at Tsukuda island, where the Sumida runs into the bay.

   • 2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 17:08 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)‎^[1], archived from the original on 17 October 2022:

     These salvos tore apart San Francisco's upper works, and, as Admiral Callaghan and most of the bridge crew died in the inferno and explosions, a few shrapnel-ridden survivors fetched up in unlikely portions of the ship, and it now came about that every senior commanding officer on both sides was now dead or out of action within the opening acts of the battle.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To overtake.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     Says [the hare], I can fetch up the tortoise when I please.

3. (intransitive and transitive) To vomit.