Mettle

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Mettle \Met"tle\, n. [E. metal, used in a tropical sense in
     allusion to the temper of the metal of a sword blade. See
     {Metal}.]
     Substance or quality of temperament; spirit, esp. as regards
     honor, courage, fortitude, ardor, etc.; disposition; --
     usually in a good sense; as, to test a person's mettle.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           A certain critical hour which shall . . . try what
           mettle his heart is made of.             --South.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Gentlemen of brave mettle.               --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The winged courser, like a generous horse,
           Shows most true mettle when you check his course.
                                                    --Pope.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {To put one one's mettle}, to cause or incite one to use
        one's best efforts.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  mettle
       n : the courage to carry on; "he kept fighting on pure spunk";
           "you haven't got the heart for baseball" [syn: {heart}, {nerve},
            {spunk}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  92 Moby Thesaurus words for "mettle":
     activity, animation, animus, aptitude, ardor, backbone, bent, bias,
     bottom, brio, briskness, cast, character, chutzpah, constitution,
     courage, dauntlessness, diathesis, disposition, eccentricity, elan,
     enthusiasm, gameness, glow, grain, grit, gusto, guts, gutsiness,
     guttiness, heart, heart of oak, idiosyncrasy, impetuosity, impetus,
     inclination, individualism, intestinal fortitude, joie de vivre,
     kidney, leaning, life, liveliness, lustiness, make, makeup,
     mental set, mettlesomeness, mind, mind-set, mold, moxie, nature,
     nerve, perkiness, pertness, pith, pluck, pluckiness, predilection,
     predisposition, preference, proclivity, propensity, resolution,
     robustness, set, slant, spirit, spiritedness, spunk, spunkiness,
     stamina, stamp, stout heart, strain, streak, stripe, temper,
     temperament, tendency, toughness, true grit, turn, turn of mind,
     twist, type, vivacity, warmth, warp, zest, zestfulness