mettlesome

American  

[met-l-suhm] / ˈmɛt l səm /

adjective

1. spirited; courageous.

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Etymology

Origin of mettlesome

First recorded in 1655–65; mettle + -some ¹

Explanation

If you're spirited and brave, you're mettlesome. It takes a mettlesome person to hike the Appalachian Trail all alone. The adjective mettlesome is a great way to describe someone who's full of pride or courage — although it's also an old-fashioned, somewhat literary way to do it. Many classic children's books feature mettlesome main characters, like Huckleberry Finn and Ann of Green Gables. Though it sounds a bit like the nosy word meddlesome, mettlesome is rooted instead in mettle, "the stuff of which someone is made."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mettlesome

The weather does its best to massacre his New Yorkers, tormenting them with frigid winters and suffocating summers; their response to the vital challenge is to show off the mettlesome resilience of the human animal.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 17, 2013

Ms. Hyltin in particular showed a newly mettlesome edge.

From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2011

That left Andsnes' athletic, mettlesome and exciting performance of the Brahms to lift the concert out of the ordinary.

From Chicago Tribune ● Feb. 18, 2011

The movement's unacknowledged leader, if such a mettlesome mood can be said to have one, is surely Sean Brock, the brilliant young chef of McCrady's Restaurant in Charleston, S.C.

From Time ● Oct. 27, 2010

The animal was fresh and mettlesome, and she lost several precious minutes before she contrived to get into the saddle by scrambling on a mound of sod piled against the outside of the building.

From By Right of Purchase by Bindloss, Harold