Link Centre Dictionary

mettle

UK/ˈmɛtəl/ US/ˈmɛtʌl/ uncommon obsolete

noun

1.

the courage to carry on

  • “he kept fighting on pure spunk”
  • “you haven”
Synonyms

Origin

From figurative use of metal (since 16th century). The two spellings were originally interchangeable variants, but came to be distinguished by sense in the 18th century.

Phrases

  • on one's mettle

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.