Fettle vs Mettle - What's the difference?
fettle | mettle |
A state of proper physical condition; kilter or trim.
One's mental state; spirits.
Sand used to line a furnace.
(Geordie, Cumbria) A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.
(ceramics) a seam line left by the meeting of mold pieces.
(UK, dialect) The act of fettling.
(Northern England) To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.
To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.
To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
(Geordie) To be upset or in a bad mood.
In ceramics, to remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
(archaic) To prepare.
* 1595 , William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
A quality of endurance and courage.
* 360 BCE , , Book VIII.
* 1599 , '', act iv, scene 8 (''First Folio ed.)
* 2001 , Harry J. Alexandrowicz, Testing your Mettle: Tough Problems and Real-world Solutions for Middle and High School Teachers , page xiii
Good temperament and character.
* 1868 , , Bleak House
(obsolete) Metal; a metallic substance.
* 1837 , Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy , page 78
As nouns the difference between fettle and mettle
is that fettle is a state of proper physical condition; kilter or trim while mettle is a quality of endurance and courage.As a verb fettle
is to sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.fettle
English
Noun
(en noun)- What's yer fettle marra?
- (Wright)
Usage notes
Outside of dialects, this term is a , found only in the phrase (m).Derived terms
* in fine fettleVerb
- (Carlyle)
- (Bishop Hall)
- Divint fettle yersel ower that!
- But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next...
Derived terms
* fettler * fettlingSee also
* fashReferences
* * * * * *mettle
English
Noun
(-)- In the succeeding generation rulers will be appointed who have lost the guardian power of testing the metal of your different races, which, like Hesiod's, are of gold and silver and brass and iron.
- By this Day and this Light, the fellow ha's mettell enough in his belly.
- Please read on and discover the issues in education that test the mettle of those who experience this world every day.
- The arrival of this unexpected heir soon taking wind in the court, still makes good for the Sol, and keeps the court upon its mettle .
- They have neither gold nor silver of their own, wine nor oyl, or scarce any corn growing in those United Provinces, little or no wood, tin, lead, iron, silk, wooll, any stuff almost, or mettle ; and yet Hungary, Transilvania, that brag of their mines, fertile England, cannot compare with them.