1612. FIELD, A Woman is a Weathercock, i. 2. What a sin were it in me to marry a man that wants the METTLE OF GENERATION.
1649. DAVENANT, Love and Honour, ii. 1.
Vas. I must provide her culleises and broths | |
That may stir METTLE in her . I find | |
Her no more fit for the business of encrease | |
Than I am to be a nun. |
1672. J. HOWARD, All Mistaken, iii. Phil. The very same, my METTLED female.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
TO FETCH METTLE, verb. phr. (venery).To masturbate.GROSE (1785). For synonyms, see FRIG.