[f. next vb.]
1. Condition, state, trim; in phr. (to be) in (good, high, etc.) fettle. Also in pl. the points, ‘ins and outs’ (of anything); but this may belong to FETTLE sb.1
c. 1750. J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), Lanc. Dialect., Gloss., Fettle, dress, case, condition.
1768. A. Ross, Helenore, 23.
| The grip detain’d her, but she cud na speak, | |
| Her tongue for fear tint fettle in her cheek. |
1804. R. Anderson, Cumbrld. Ball., 90. We were young, and beath i’ fettle.
1829. J. R. Best, Pers. & Lit. Mem., 364–5. In the assertion of the Anglican catechism, that two sacraments only have been ordained as generally necessary to salvation, a critic, who knows what the north-countryman calls the fettles of the business, may suspect an equivocation.
1850. Tales Kirkb., Ser. II. 270. I’m in terrible poor fettle with the toothache.
1857. E. Waugh, Lanc. Life (1857), 18. I took the road at once, with my stick in my hand, as briskly as a Shetland pony in good fettle.
1859. W. Holmes, Prof Breakf-t., xii. (1891), 313. The young man John is still, as he says, ‘in fustrate fettle.’
1890. W. Beatty-Kingston, The Médoc Vintage of 1889, in Fortn. Rev., XLVII. May, 729. It would indeed be surprising were they not in fine fettle; for they live like fighting-cocks throughout their engagement.
2. The material used for ‘fettling’ a furnace.
1894. Harper’s Mag., Feb., 420/2. The molten metal is thoroughly stirred or ‘rabbled’ to make it uniform and secure the incorporation of the ‘fettle.’
