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Mettle vs Brave - What's the difference?

mettle | brave |

As a noun mettle

is a quality of endurance and courage.

As a verb brave is

.

mettle

English

Noun

(-)
  • A quality of endurance and courage.
  • * 360 BCE , , Book VIII.
    • 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.
  • * 1599 , '', act iv, scene 8 (''First Folio ed.)
    • By this Day and this Light, the fellow ha's mettell enough in his belly.
  • * 2001 , Harry J. Alexandrowicz, Testing your Mettle: Tough Problems and Real-world Solutions for Middle and High School Teachers , page xiii
    • Please read on and discover the issues in education that test the mettle of those who experience this world every day.
  • Good temperament and character.
  • * 1868 , , Bleak House
    • 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 .
  • (obsolete) Metal; a metallic substance.
  • * 1837 , Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy , page 78
    • 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.

    Synonyms

    * (quality of endurance and courage) courage, heart, spirit

    Related terms

    * mettlesome

    brave

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Strong in the face of fear; courageous.
  • *1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula), Chapter 21:
  • *:Do not fret, dear. You must be brave and strong, and help me through the horrible task. If you only knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful thing at all, you would understand how much I need your help.
  • *1987 , Michael Grumley, The Last Diary :
  • *:he has been so brave , giving it all a dignity.
  • (label) Having any sort of superiority or excellence.
  • *(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • *:Iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth.
  • *(Samuel Pepys) (1633-1703)
  • *:It being a brave day, I walked to Whitehall.
  • Making a fine show or display.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Wear my dagger with the braver grace.
  • * (1558-1592)
  • *:For I have gold, and therefore will be brave . / In silks I'll rattle it of every color.
  • *(Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)
  • *:Frog and lizard in holiday coats / And turtle brave in his golden spots.
  • *
  • *:So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

    • Synonyms

    * (courageous) doughty, orped, resilient, stalwart. See also

    Antonyms

    * (courageous) cowardly, fearful, mean, weak

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A Native American warrior.
  • A man daring beyond discretion; a bully.
  • * Dryden
    • Hot braves like thee may fight.
  • A challenge; a defiance; bravado.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Demetrius, thou dost overween in all; / And so in this, to bear me down with braves .

    Verb

  • To encounter with courage and fortitude, to defy.
  • * (rfdate), (John Dryden)
    • These I can brave , but those I can not bear.
  • * 1773 , A Farmer, Rivington's New-York Gazetteer , Number 53, December 2
    • but they [Parliament] never will be braved into it.
    After braving''' tricks on the high-dive, he '''braved a jump off the first diving platform.
  • (obsolete) To adorn; to make fine or showy.
  • * (rfdate), Shakespeare
    • Thou [a tailor whom Grunio was browbeating] hast braved meny men; brave not me; I'll neither be faced or braved.

    Derived terms

    * bravely * bravery * bravure 1000 English basic words ----