Mettle

n.

1.

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. A certain critical hour which shall . . . try what mettle his heart is made of. - South. Gentlemen of brave mettle. - Shak. The winged courser, like a generous horse, Shows most true mettle when you check his course. - Pope. To put one one's mettle to cause or incite one to use one's best efforts.

Noun

1.

mettle - the courage to carry on; "he kept fighting on pure spunk"; "you haven't got the heart for baseball" Synonyms: nerve, spunk, heart

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, 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