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Glite Dictionary
📬 To collect letters 💻 To download emails
to fetch the mail

to fetch the mail

1 1.9
To go and collect letters and packages from a mailbox
  • phrasal verb
  • US
translation icon : recoger el correo
  • She decided to fetch the mail before starting her homework.

Examples

  • She forgot to fetch the mail yesterday, so the box was full this morning.

  • Could you please fetch the mail while you’re out walking the dog?

  • I always fetch the mail as soon as the mail carrier leaves.

  • Please fetch the mail!

  • Can you fetch the mail today?

  • Every afternoon, I go outside to fetch the mail from the mailbox.

  • After work, he always remembers to fetch the mail and bring it inside.

Surface Forms

fetch the mail infinitive
fetched the mail past
fetched the mail past participle
fetching the mail present participle
fetches the mail third person singular

Morphology

fetch + the + mail

The meaning 'to retrieve electronic mail' is directly derivable from combining 'fetch' (to go obtain and return with something) with 'mail' (email), following a basic verb + object composition. Although the computing sense is a technological extension, the relation is transparent and predictable for learners who know both constituents.

Etymology

Fetch the mail comes from the simple image of someone walking to the house mailbox, taking the mail and carrying it back; fetch here means 'go and bring'. So, it means 'to go and collect letters and packages'.