Other forms: fletching, fletched
To fletch is to fit feathers to an arrow. Fletch an arrow, hand-fletched, fletching the shafts.
The feathers make the arrow spin, and the spin is what keeps it straight — the same principle as rifling in a gun barrel. Three feathers is standard, with one set at an angle to the nock. Fletching is both the act and the feathers themselves. Note fletcher, the arrow-maker, which survives as one of the commonest English surnames from a trade that has not existed for centuries.
1verbfletchTo fit feathers to an arrow.
“The archer fletched his arrows with grey goose feathers.”
fletch is an arrow-making step.
FLETCH → FETCH the arrow, then feather it
The dog will fetch the arrow back, but somebody still has to fix the feathers on it before it will fly straight again.
hooks ontofetch
Fletch is an alteration of fledge, to acquire feathers, reshaped under the influence of fletcher, an arrow-maker, from Old French fleche, an arrow.
Built from
A modification of fledge (“to acquire feathers”) due to the influence of fletcher (“arrow-maker”). Compare flèche.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA