to play fetch
6
1.9
- phrasal verb
:
jugar a buscar
- Every Saturday morning, we play fetch with our retriever at the beach.
- playing fetch with his dog
- Let's play fetch
- Wanna play fetch
I think dogs like to play fetch because, well, they're stupid.
- I think dogs like to play fetch because, well, they're stupid.
- And so again, when we play fetch at the park, I know, I know how to find him.
- He loves to play fetch and the toys like triplet size hot potato.
- He is kind of spoiled and he mostly just likes to play fetch with some cheap squeaky toy that came with him when the breeder handed him over.
Examples
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He's playing fetch with my kids.
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We played fetch.
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And so again, when we play fetch at the park, I know, I know how to find him.
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You know, Max used to take me to play fetch at the park every night.
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Like playing fetch with my dog.
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You want to play fetch, Douglas?
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Play fetch with your dog?
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My newest cat loves to play fetch.
Blog text (2) -
Want to play fetch?
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We're playing fetch.
How Active
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'play' (engage in an activity) combined with 'fetch' (to retrieve and return something) yields 'engage in a retrieving game'. The pattern 'play + [game/activity]' is common and cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Play fetch paints a simple picture: you throw a ball and a dog runs to fetch it and bring it back. Because fetch means 'to get and bring back', play fetch means 'to play a game where a dog brings an object back'.