mettle
[ met-l ]
/ ˈmɛt l /
noun
courage and fortitude: a man of mettle.
disposition or temperament: a man of fine mettle.
Idioms for mettle
on one's mettle,
in the position of being incited to do one's best: The loss of the first round put him on his mettle to win the match.
Origin of mettle
1575–85; spelling variant of
metal, in metaphoric usages
Words nearby mettle
Example sentences from the Web for mettle
British Dictionary definitions for mettle
mettle
/ (ˈmɛtəl) /
noun
courage; spirit
inherent character
on one's mettle
roused to putting forth one's best efforts
Word Origin for mettle
C16: originally variant spelling of
metal