I asked her to send for a doctor. (daum.net)
For ‘my’ asking, do we need three persons (I, her, and a person who’ll deliver my asking message to a doctor)? For the interpretation of the following sentence of this, ‘we sent for the doctor’, someone interpreted on the same website as if it needs not any go-between; while other interpretations seem to need the go-between.
What is the meaning of ‘send for’? Does ‘send for’ have two meanings?
One, ‘send for’ is direct requesting from A to B.
Two, ‘send for’ is indirect requesting that needs a go-between between A and B.
(In latter case, does the verb, send, have the followed meaning?: “send someone or communication tools, e.g. telegraph, for summon someone)
Best Answer
When we say that I sent for a doctor, it means either I myself asked the doctor (say over the telephone) to come to us or I asked someone (a go-between) to talk to the doctor to come to us. If we refer to English dict ionaries, we will find that some dictionaries say that it means to ask someone to come to us and others say that it means to ask for someone to come to us. There is a difference of meaning between the verb "ask" and the phrasal verb "ask for". So I think the phrasal verb "send for" doesn't necessarily mean that there should be a go-between.