fettle

American  

[fet-l] / ˈfɛt l /

noun

1. state; condition.

   in fine fettle.

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verb (used with object)

• fettles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fettled,
  past participle,  past
• fettling
  present participle

1. Ceramics. to remove mold marks from (a cast piece).

2. Metallurgy.

   1. to remove sand from (a casting).

   2. to repair the hearth of (an open-hearth furnace).

fettle British  

/ ˈfɛtəl /

verb

1. to remove (excess moulding material and casting irregularities) from a cast component

2. to line or repair (the walls of a furnace)

3. dialect

   1. to prepare or arrange (a thing, oneself, etc), esp to put a finishing touch to

   2. to repair or mend (something)

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noun

1. state of health, spirits, etc (esp in the phrase in fine fettle )

2. another name for fettling

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• fettling
  present
• fettled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fettle
  simple
• fettles
  simple
• have fettled
  perfect
• has fettled
  perfect
• am fettling
  progressive
• are fettling
  progressive
• is fettling
  progressive
• have been fettling
  perfect progressive
• has been fettling
  perfect progressive

Past

• fettled
  simple
• had fettled
  perfect
• was fettling
  progressive
• were fettling
  progressive
• had been fettling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fettle
  simple
• will have fettled
  perfect
• will be fettling
  progressive
• will have been fettling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of fettle

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English verb fetlen, fetelen, fatelen “to shape, prepare,” perhaps from Old English noun fetel “belt, girdle”

Explanation

Fettle is the state or condition you're in, especially if it's positive. You might describe your bouncy, healthy puppy as being in fine fettle. You'll almost always see the adjective "fine" describing the noun fettle. Being in fine fettle means feeling good, being healthy, or having an energetic approach to something. A powerful speaker who gives a particularly rousing speech is in fine fettle, and an eighty-year-old marathon runner is also in fine fettle. In 1700s Lancashire dialect, fettle meant "to make ready," or "to prepare for battle," from the Old English word fetel, "belt or girdle."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fettle fettles fettled fettling

Dangerous talk, of course, but they're in decent fettle one week out from the biggest game of their international lives.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

At the moment, you’re in fine fettle with a total of $2 million coverage.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 15, 2025

Steely Dan opened the concert with a sprightly set of jazz-wise pop that Donald Fagen, in seemingly fine fettle after a recent hospital stay, capped with a shout-out to his late creative partner, Walter Becker.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2024

Overall, markets go into Wednesday in pretty fine fettle.

From Reuters ● Jun. 6, 2023

The Abel who was leaving was in better fettle, in all ways, than the Abel who had arrived in a hurricane, desperately clinging to a nail.

From "Abel's Island" by William Steig

To revert to my former example of its use—An injured cart is fettled by the wheel-wright; the wheelwright fettles the injured cart.

From Notes and Queries, Number 09, December 29, 1849 by Various

Rosey! sweet little posy Come to our garden fête; Our naughty young nettles shall be on their fettles, All stinging things to bate.

From The Zankiwank and The Bletherwitch An Original Fantastic Fairy Extravaganza by S. J. Adair Fitzgerald

A tackler is one who fettles looms when they get out of order.

From Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine by Edwin Waugh

Jaguar took me to a hangar in Monterey to meet the E-Type Zero, painted a swimming metallic bronze and fettled to a straightness that is itself wildly anachronistic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2018

Much modified and fettled by the Chinese, the ship is based on the Soviet Kuznetsov-class design.

From Economist ● Jan. 19, 2017

My lord Cid and the others have fettled them to ride, With armor and with horses and caparisons of pride.

From The Lay of the Cid by Leonard Bacon

"Thank you," said the man; "and now for what you have done I will pay you"; so saying, he tore a branch from the tree, and fettled it up into a club with his knife.

From English Fairy Tales by Arthur Rackham

Their leave then have they taken and fettled them to ride, And with them went the herald on their need that was to wait.

From The Lay of the Cid by Leonard Bacon

Keep in mind: this was a result achieved without any fettling from the Cup series’ myriad new rules for the upcoming season, making it something for the sport’s many hardline fans to truly savor.

From Time ● Feb. 22, 2016

What did the unrevealed God matter, when a man had a young family that needed fettling for?

From The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

He is getting his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what danger he is in.

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 07 by Thomas Carlyle

I have heard the people here talk of "fettling" the hearth when they mean "clean up."

From Sarah's School Friend by May Baldwin

But Friedrich calculated there would be very considerable fettling and haggling on Daun's part; say a good Fortnight of Siege allowed;—and that, by dead-lift effort of all hands, the thing was feasible within that limit.

From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 20 by Thomas Carlyle