Search Result for "mettle": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. the courage to carry on;
- Example: "he kept fighting on pure spunk"
- Example: "you haven't got the heart for baseball"
[syn: heart, mettle, nerve, spunk]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

mettle n 1: the courage to carry on; "he kept fighting on pure spunk"; "you haven't got the heart for baseball" [syn: heart, mettle, nerve, spunk]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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