Word.ws English Dictionary

fettle

Syllables: fet·tle/ˈfɛtl̩/

fettle noun: a state of physical condition; kilter or trim.

Noun

fettle (plural fettles)

  1. A state of physical condition; kilter or trim.
    • These strong 2-8-2s […] appeared in good fettle, especially those shedded at Lublin and several arrivals and departures were photographed in the fine evening light.1979 August, P. R. G. Kennard, “Polish Steam Panorama”, in Railway World, page 421
  2. One's mental state; spirits.
  3. Sand used to line a furnace.
  4. A seam line left by the meeting of mould pieces.
  5. (UK, dialectal) The act of fettling.
  6. (Cumbria, Geordie) A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.
    • What’s yer fettle marra?

Verb

fettle (third-person singular simple present fettles, present participle fettling, simple past and past participle fettled)

  1. (Northern England, especially) To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.
    • He is getting his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what danger he is in.1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia
    • For some time after the train had gone Oscar stood on the track conversing with members of the fettling gang […]1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VI, in Capricornia, page 83
  2. (intransitive) To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.
    • Nor list he now go whistling to the car,
      But sells his team , and fettleth to the war1597, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First Three Bookes, of Tooth-lesse Satyrs. […], London: […] Thomas Creede, for Robert Dexter, →OCLC
  3. (transitive) To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
  4. (Geordie, reflexive) To be upset or in a bad mood.
    • Divint fettle yersel ower that!
  5. To remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
  6. (transitive) To machine away seam lines or more generally to make small adjustments to a component or machine to improve its fit or operation.
    • He wants to fettle his gearchange mechanism before the next competition.
  7. (archaic, transitive) To prepare.
    • But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next...1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

fettle meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

fettle in Tamil

நிலைமை, ஊஞ்சல்

fettle in Malayalam

(physical) fitness, shape, trim
സുഖാവസ്ഥ, ആകാരം, വടിവ്, രൂപം, സുവ്യവസ്ഥ, ശാരീരികനില

Forms of fettle

Noun
pluralfettles
Verb
third-person singular presentfettles
present participlefettling
past participlefettled
pastfettled

Origin of fettle

From Late Middle English fetlen (“(verb) to bestow; to fix, prepare, put in place; to prepare (oneself) for battle, gird up; to shape; to be about to, or to ready (oneself) to stay; (adjective) shaped (well or poorly)”) [and other forms], which possibly: * from Old English fetel (“belt, girdle, fettle”), from Proto-Germanic *fatilaz, further etymology unknown; or * from Old English fetian (“to fetch”), from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”). Compare Old English ġefetelsod (“provided with a belt; trimmed, polished, ornamented”).

Words formed from fettle

Words that rhyme with fettle

Questions about fettle

What does fettle mean?
Fettle means a state of physical condition; kilter or trim.
What is fettle in Tamil?
Fettle in Tamil is நிலைமை, ஊஞ்சல். See Fettle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is fettle?
Fettle can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce fettle?
Fettle is pronounced /ˈfɛtl̩/.
What is the plural of fettle?
The plural of fettle is fettles.

Words near fettle in the dictionary

  1. fetti
  2. fetticus
  3. Fettig
  4. Fettigs
  5. fetting
  6. fettle
  7. fettled
  8. fettler
  9. fettlers
  10. fettles
  11. fettling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fettle (page history and authors); fettle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fettle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fettle.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-fettle.wav.

Cite this entry: “fettle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fettle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.