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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Proper or sound condition.
  2. n. Mental or emotional state; spirits: was in fine fettle.
  3. n. Metallurgy Loose sand or ore used to line the hearth of a reverberatory furnace in preparation for pouring molten metal.
  4. v. Metallurgy To line the hearth of (a reverberatory furnace) with loose sand or ore in preparation for pouring molten metal.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To bind; tie up.
  2. To arrange; prepare; put in order; repair; mend.
  3. To beat; thrash.
  4. Toline(the hearth of a puddling-furnace). See fettling.
  5. Fettled ale or porter, ale or porter sweetened with sugar and seasoned with a little ginger and nutmeg.
  6. To potter; set about in a fussy, pottering way; do trifling business.
  7. n. The state of being prepared, or in good repair or condition: as, he is in splendid fettle to-day.
  8. n. A handle in the side of a large basket.
  9. Neat; tight; handy.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A state of proper physical condition; kilter or trim.
  2. n. One's mental state; spirits.
  3. n. Sand used to line a furnace.
  4. n. A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.
  5. n. a seam line left by the meeting of mold pieces.
  6. v. To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.
  7. v. To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
  8. v. To be upset or in bad mood.
  9. v. In ceramics, to remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
  10. v. To repair or tune a bicycle.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To repair; to prepare; to put in order.
  2. v. To cover or line with a mixture of ore, cinders, etc., as the hearth of a puddling furnace.
  3. v. To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.
  4. n. The act of fettling.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a state of fitness and good health
  2. v. remove mold marks or sand from (a casting)

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English fetlen, to make ready, possibly from Old English fetel, girdle.

Examples

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘fettle’.

Comments

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  • fbharjo a different type of sand blasting (or should I say sand basking) Sep 7, 2009

  • yarb Sired by surgical       Sundries Inc.,
    my appearance - patent       pending - is awesome.
    I am not fettled from       fleeces of thick wool,
    no knitter's needles       knocked me up.

    - Peter Reading, ?, from Tom O' Bedlam's Beauties, 1981 Jun 28, 2008

  • reesetee I hear it used relatively often (in the States, east coast), SoG, but only in the phrase thigpen mentions: in fine fettle.

    I often wonder what a poor fettle might look like. Dec 17, 2007

  • sonofgroucho I thought this was particularly Scottish. Am I wrong? Dec 17, 2007

  • thigpensrevenge in fine fettle Jan 7, 2007

‘fettle’ has been looked up 1554 times, loved by 2 people, added to 25 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.