fettle

[fet-l]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fettle ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

state; condition: in fine fettle.

verb (used with object), fet·tled, fet·tling.

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

Metallurgy.

to remove sand from (a casting).
to repair the hearth of (an open-hearth furnace).

RELATED WORDS

shape, order, condition

Nearby words

Origin of fettle

1300–50; Middle English fetle to shape, prepare, back formation from fetled, Old English *fetelede girded up, equivalent to fetel belt + -ede -ed²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fettle

The gunners and swabbers were putting their cannon in fettle below decks.
The Black Buccaneer|Stephen W. Meader
They stopt to fettle th' engine a while back, an' they'n never started sin'.
Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine|Edwin Waugh
That's a match some old cats would lap tea all night to fettle up.'
A Diversity of Creatures|Rudyard Kipling
One branch of my duty is to fettle your horse; and in Flamborough they fettle them on stale fish.
Mary Anerley|R. D. Blackmore

The meetings were only memorable when Tammas Haggart was in fettle, to pronounce judgments in his well-known sarcastic way.
A Window in Thrums|J. M. Barrie

British Dictionary definitions for fettle

fettle

verb (tr)

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

to line or repair (the walls of a furnace)

British dialect

to prepare or arrange (a thing, oneself, etc), esp to put a finishing touch to
to repair or mend (something)

noun

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

another name for fettling

Word Origin for fettle

C14 (in the sense: to put in order): back formation from fetled girded up, from Old English fetel belt

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fettle

fettle

"condition, state, trim," c.1750, Lancashire dialect, from fettle (v.) "to make ready, arrange" (14c.), perhaps from Old English fetel "a girdle, belt," from Proto-Germanic *fatiloz (cf. German fessel "fetter, chain," Old Norse fetill "strap, brace"), from *fat- "to hold."

Medicine definitions for fettle

fettle

[fĕt′l]

n.

Proper or sound condition.

Mental or emotional state; spirits.