fettle

English[edit]

fettle ‎(plural fettles)

A state of proper physical condition; kilter or trim.
One's mental state; spirits.
Sand used to line a furnace.
(Geordie, Cumbria) A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.

What's yer fettle marra?
(ceramics) a seam line left by the meeting of mold pieces.
(Britain, dialect) The act of fettling.

(Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

Outside of dialects, this term is a fossil, found only in the phrase in fine fettle.

fettle ‎(third-person singular simple present fettles, present participle fettling, simple past and past participle fettled)

(Northern England) To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.

(Can we find and add a quotation of Carlyle to this entry?)
- 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter VI, p. 83, [1]
  
  For some time after the train had gone Oscar stood on the track conversing with members of the fettling gang […]
(intransitive) To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.

(Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Hall to this entry?)
(transitive) To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
(reflexive, Geordie) To be upset or in a bad mood.

Divint fettle yersel ower that!
In ceramics, to remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
(transitive, archaic) To prepare.
- 1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
  
  But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next...

fettle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [2]
The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, ISBN 0946928118
Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896, [3]
Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[4]