| 释义 |
mettlesome, a.|ˈmɛt(ə)lsəm|
[f. mettle + -some.]
Full of mettle; spirited. a. of horses, etc.
1662J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 29 marg., The Indian Oxen as metalsome as the Horses in Germany. 1749Fielding Tom Jones iv. xiii, Her horse, whose mettlesome spirit required a better rider. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. vi. 39 The instant Haley touched the saddle, the mettlesome creature bounded from the earth with a sudden spring.
b. of a person.
1710Palmer Proverbs 229 Imagination..'tis..increas'd by that love men have to themselves, which at once makes 'em blind and mettlesome. 1859Thackeray Virgin. lxii, A powerful mettlesome young Achilles.
†c. Of an organ of the body: Vigorous. Obs.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. ii. vi. 104 In the Systole the Heart is vigorated and mettlesome, not in the Diastole.
†d. of actions. Obs.
1681Nevile Plato Rediv. 267 Some smart mettlesome Debates.
Hence ˈmettlesomely adv. (1755 in Johnson), ˈmettlesomeness (1727 in Bailey, vol. II). |