Word.ws English Dictionary

on one's mettle

on one's mettle prepositional phrase: putting forth one's best efforts.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Putting forth one's best efforts.
    • R.L. is on his mettle, and the attitude of Rainproof is that of an expectant child with its mouth open and its eyes closed.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

Questions about on one's mettle

What does on one's mettle mean?
On one's mettle means putting forth one's best efforts.
What part of speech is on one's mettle?
On one's mettle is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on one's mettle in the dictionary

  1. on one's lee-lane
  2. on one's legs
  3. on one's lonesome
  4. on one's Ls
  5. on one's mark
  6. on one's mettle
  7. on one's mind
  8. on one's ones
  9. on one's own
  10. on one's own account
  11. on one's own bat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on one's mettle (page history and authors). 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:

Cite this entry: “on one's mettle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_one%27s_mettle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.