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]

English

Etymology

Variant of metal.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛtəl

Homophones

• metal
• medal, meddle (in accents with flapping)

Noun

1. the quality of endurance and courage
2. having good temperament and character

Related terms

• mettlesome

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