fetch a compass

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to give me your considered opinion concerning the interpretation of the expression in bold in the following sentence?

We wanted to avoid going through the town, so we fetched a compass.

fetch a compass = round, go round

V.

[Michael84]

not a teacher

Yes. They went a way round.

P.S.: Interesting idiom. Wasn't aware of it, yet. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/To+fetch+a+compass

[Rover_KE]

That's not an idiom.

And using a compass would not help you to find a bypass round a town.

For that, you'd need a map, a GPS device or a route-planning service like Mapquest.

Rover