Idiom
fetch and carry
Meaning
To serve obsequiously.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He refuses to fetch and carry for his boss anymore.”
“I am your teammate, so please do not expect me to fetch and carry.”
“She felt like a servant because her manager expected her to fetch and carry for him all day.”
“The new assistant spends most of her time having to fetch and carry for the lead actors instead of learning how the film set actually works.”
“Even though he is a qualified lawyer, the senior partners still treat him like a child and make him fetch and carry their heavy files.”
“The young intern grew tired of being expected to fetch and carry for the senior partners, so he began looking for a more professional role.”
Examples
simple
“He refuses to fetch and carry for his boss anymore.”
“I am your teammate, so please do not expect me to fetch and carry.”
contextual
“She felt like a servant because her manager expected her to fetch and carry for him all day.”
“The new assistant spends most of her time having to fetch and carry for the lead actors instead of learning how the film set actually works.”
“Even though he is a qualified lawyer, the senior partners still treat him like a child and make him fetch and carry their heavy files.”
complex
“The young intern grew tired of being expected to fetch and carry for the senior partners, so he began looking for a more professional role.”
Origin
From fetch + and + carry, originally a reference to a trained dog fetching and conveying an object back to its master: see, for example, William Shakespeare’s play The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act III, scene i (spelling modernized): “She hath more qualities than a water-spaniel, […] She can fetch and carry: why a horse can do no more; nay, a horse cannot fetch, but only carry, therefore is she better than a jade.”
Key words
Related idioms
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