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disposition; -- usually in a good sense. A certain critical hour which shall... try what mettle his heart is made of. South. Gentlemen of brave mettle. Shak. The winged courser, like a generous horse, Shows most true mettle when you check his course. Pope. To put one one's mettle, to cause or incite one to use one's b…

Having mettle; high-spirited; ardent; full of fire. Addison.

Full of spirit; possessing constitutional ardor; fiery; as, a mettlesome horse. -- Met"tle*some*ly, adv. -- Met"tle*some*ness, n.

Destitute of mettle, that is, or fire or spirit. [R.] Llewellyn.

Having abundance of mettle; ardent; full of fire; as, a high- mettled steed.

Dull-spirited. Shak.

Inborn mettle or courage; one's own temper. [Obs.] Shak.

ntent to do such injury. Anger is like A full hot horse, who being allowed his way, Self- mettle tires him. Shak.

A lively or mettlesome fellow. [Jocular, Scot.] Burns.

Unrestrained; fierce; mettlesome; spirited. One curbed the fiery steed. Dryden.

A man of mettle or spirit; a gay; fashionable man; a young blood. Shak.

Insuppressible. [Obs.] "The insuppressive mettle of our spirits." Shak.

Courage; spirit; mettle. See Mettle. Shak.

To spring or bound, as a horse in high mettle. Now rule thy prancing steed. Gay.

Consciousness of power; fullness of animal spirits; mettle; wantonness; hence, lust; sexual desire; esp., an excitement of sexual appetite in a female beast. [Obs.] Pride of India, or Pride of China. (Bot.) See Margosa. -- Pride of the desert (Zoöl.), the camel.

siderable degree of the thing or quality denoted in the first part of the compound; as in mettlesome, full of mettle or spirit; gladsome, full of gladness; winsome, blithesome, etc.

An inflammable temper; spirit; mettle; pluck; as, a man of spunk. [Colloq.] A lawless and dangerous set, men of spunk, and spirit, and power, both of mind and body. Prof. Wilson.

Stout; mettlesome; resolute. [Scot.] Jamieson.

blooded; -- said of stock, as horses. Hence, having the characteristics of such breeding; mettlesome; courageous; of elegant form, or the like. -- n.