Forms: 4–6 fettel, 4–7 fetle, (5 fettil, fetyl), 5–6 fetel(e, 9 dial. fottle, 4– fettle. [Possibly f. OE. fętel, FETTLE sb.); the primary sense would then be ‘to gird up.’]
1. trans. To make ready, put in order, arrange. Now only dial. to put to rights, ‘tidy up,’ scour; also, to groom (a horse), attend to (cattle).
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 585.
| He þat fetly in face fettled alle eres. | |
| Ibid., C. 38. | |
| For in þe tyxte, þere þyse two arn in teme layde, | |
| Hit arn fettled in on forme. |
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 656. Now alle þese fyue syþez, forsoþe, were fetled on þis knyȝt.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 626. And faste by his enfourme was fettild his place.
1561. Schole-house of Women, 571, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 127.
| Our fily is fetled vnto the saddle; | |
| Ride who wil, shod is the Mare, | |
| And thus they exchaunge ware for ware. |
1787. Grose, Provinc. Gloss., To fettle th’ tits, to dress the horses.
1849. Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1858), 360. I dusted him a chair, an’ fettled up th’ fireplace a bit.
1864. T. Clarke, Jonny Shippard’s Journa ta Lunnan, in Kendal Mercury, 30 Jan. Woif hed fottled him a noice loil poi i’ thoon.
1880. A. J. Munby, Dorothy, 46.
| ‘And, for my work, I can do all that belongs to a farm: | |
| I can hoe turnips and wheat; and plough (as you saw me) and harrow; | |
| Fettle both horses and cows; clean out the stable and byre.’ |
b. techn. To line (a puddling furnace, etc.); to scour (rough castings).
1881. C. R. A. Wright, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XIII. 324/1. In fettling the furnace either oxide or iron bricks moulded to fit the furnace are built in, or, etc.
1884. Imp. & Mach. Rev., 1 Dec., 6716/2. A castings-cleaner, capable of holding a ton of rough castings and fettling them in an hour.
c. To ‘do for’ (a person), to beat.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., 322. Tom offered to upset him, punch him, stamp on him, fettle him over the head with a brick, or anything else whatsoever which would give him the slightest comfort.
1884. Cheshire Gloss., s.v. A mother will threaten her child ‘I’ll fettle thee.’
d. To mull (ale or porter); see FETTLED below.
† 2. refl. and intr. for refl. To get (oneself) ready; to prepare; to address oneself to battle. Obs. exc. dial. (see quot. 1855).
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 435. On a felde he fettelez hym to bide.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xvi. 197.
| This Scottis … | |
| Tuk the feld, and manlykly | |
| Fetlyt wyth thare fais in fycht. |
1515. The Scottish Field, 304, in Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 227.
| He … fettlen them to sowpe | |
| besides Barwicke on a banke within a broad woode. |
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. vi. 43.
| Nor list he now go whistling to the Carre, | |
| But sels his Teeme and fetleth to the warre. |
1600. Holland, Livy, XXI. xvi. (1609), 402. They rather trembled and quaked for feare, than fetled themselves to consultation and counsell.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, To Fettle; to set or go about any thing, to dress or prepare.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Glass. ‘We are just fettling for off,’ getting ready to go.
b. To busy oneself; to fuss.
1745. Swift, Direct. Servants, iii. When you know your Master is most busy in Company, come in and pretend to fettle about the Room, and if he chides, say, you thought he rung the Bell.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gr. (1865), II. VII. vii. 325. He is getting his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what danger he is in.
Hence Fettled ppl. a., in senses of the vb.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 309. Ylle fetyld.
1861. Temple Bar Mag., I. Feb., 420. It is better that a rogue should have a pint of fettled porter and a meal of bread and cheese than that the pitiless weather should give him a tiger’s stomach and a wolf’s heart.
1863. Miss Braddon, F. Marchmont, I. 95. Many a stout Lincolnshire farm-labourer was content to sit over his hearth, with a pipe of shag-tobacco and a mug of fettled beer, while Miss Marchmont read and expounded the history of Abraham and Isaac, or Joseph and his brethren.
1884. Cheshire Gloss., Fettled Ale, ale mulled with ginger and sugar.
