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 THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH mettle

medal meddle metal 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