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mettle
in a sentence

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  • Now sir, young Fortinbras,
    Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
    Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
    Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes
    For food and diet to some enterprise
    That hath a stomach in't.
    Shakespeare, Hamlet
    Fu Inle means "after moonrise."†   (source)
  • One of the few ways that a foot soldier could distinguish himself—and advance in the tournament—was by proving his mettle for violence.†   (source)
  • Her shyness did not conceal her eloquence of mettle and will.†   (source)
  • The bigger the obstacle, the better the opportunity to prove the cadet's mettle.†   (source)
  • Easy Company's boss was Captain Dave Severance, a tall, lean Wisconsin native; a ramrod Marine of exceptional judgment who had shown his mettle in battle, who expressed his authority through calm understatement and unflinching example.†   (source)
  • I want more mettle, if you please, lady.†   (source)
  • What Tess had was mettle.†   (source)
  • He has more mettle than the rest of you put together.†   (source)
  • 'Of course they had a right,' General Peckem snapped with cold and calculated severity, resolving right then and there to test the mettle of his new colonel under fire.†   (source)
  • He even liked the way she argued with him, full of mettle.†   (source)
  • Right now, Beto would prove his mettle at the plate, not behind it.†   (source)
  • Years before, at age twenty, he had set down in his diary that men ought to "avow their opinions and defend them with boldness," and he was of the same mettle still.†   (source)
  • And there the Golden Company had proved its mettle.†   (source)
  • Then, after months of being diplomatic and appearing weak in Soviet eyes, the president shows his true mettle.†   (source)
  • Show your mettle.†   (source)
  • I needed the symbol of something worthy of encounter on the road, to test the resonance and mettle of my own humanity.†   (source)
  • But I will say, too, that for every man who showed no fear or hesitance, there were three or four or five others whose mettle was as unashamedly wan and mortal as yours or mine.†   (source)
  • Goode smiled benignly, as though this tiny skirmishhad been a way for him to evaluate Cotton's mettle.†   (source)
  • Mettlesome.†   (source)
  • Not only had I reports reaching back years before I ever saw you but also we had shared joy and danger and hardship; I knew your mettle.†   (source)
  • Terror, terror, show your mettle, take the scab, throw them in the nettle.†   (source)
  • Better we leave before whatever else is lurking on the island decides to test our mettle.†   (source)
  • I gave you the opportunity to prove your mettle.†   (source)
  • I felt I had what Gallagher had—mettle.†   (source)
  • He's testing their mettle," answered the priest.†   (source)
  • This is a test—of my mettle, my strength—which means there must be something specific I'm supposed to do to get out of here.†   (source)
  • It proved his mettle.†   (source)
  • One, the fallen captain of the former Yellow Dragon, who had been the most valiant of them all; the other, the young man who wanted more than anything to go to war, to be in battle, and show the world his worth and mettle.†   (source)
  • …of what we all considered the greater destiny and the mandate of our people, I had hoped, too, that my preparation and training would be tested and confirmed by live experiences, however difficult and horrible; and more specifically, that my truest mettle would show itself in the crucible of the battlefield, and so prove to anyone who might suspect otherwise the worthiness of raising me away from the lowly quarters of my kin and reveal the essential, inner spirit that is within us all.†   (source)
  • He had to check his hungry guests in their zeal for the relishes and the soup, warning them to save their mettle for what was to come.†   (source)
  • The army in butternut were now seasoned fighters, their generals had proven their mettle, and everyone knew that when the campaign reopened in the spring, the Yankees would be crushed for good and all.†   (source)
  • He looked sulky; grim; his eyes became bluer when he was thus on his mettle; his face flushed a little.†   (source)
  • Make it public then-special editions, etc. It will make a bit of a panic in the particular town named, but it will put everyone whose name begins with C on his guard, and it'll put A.B.C. on his mettle.†   (source)
  • He had never thought that women of her strong mettle had tears, and a flood of tenderness and remorse swept him.†   (source)
  • There was something about the prospect of a struggle of wits with a man—with any man—that put her on her mettle and, after months of battling against countless discouragements, the knowledge that she was at last facing a definite adversary, one whom she might unhorse by her own efforts, gave her a buoyant sensation.†   (source)
  • They were all healthy, thoughtless young animals, sleek, graceful, high-spirited, the boys as mettlesome as the horses they rode, mettlesome and dangerous but, withal, sweet-tempered to those who knew how to handle them.†   (source)
  • It hurt and startled her, and roused her mettle.†   (source)
  • He is an honest and a mettle gentleman, and I would have ye bear in mind who says it.†   (source)
  • The St. George's Hill men, however, were better led or of a better mettle.†   (source)
  • The cook, placed upon her mettle, served a delicious repast—a luscious tenderloin broiled a point.†   (source)
  • His horses were full of mettle, and even a little unmanageable.†   (source)
  • Besides, her horse was mettlesome, thoroughly aroused, and he wanted a free rein and his own way.†   (source)
  • First, the veto of the Censor, which put the supporters of the play on their mettle.†   (source)
  • Such is my spirit when I am on my mettle.†   (source)
  • A harsh, thin cackle behind the curtains put the hillman on his mettle for a second shot.†   (source)
  • He seemed afraid to talk, he only whipped up smartly his three lean, but mettlesome, bay horses.†   (source)
  • When he came to the gate of his home and saw his uncle there with a mettlesome horse, saddled, with canteen, rope, and bags all in place, a subtle shock pervaded his spirit.†   (source)
  • But Lily was not easily disconcerted; competition put her on her mettle, and she reflected that Selden's coming, if it did not declare him to be still in Mrs. Dorset's toils, showed him to be so completely free from them that he was not afraid of her proximity.†   (source)
  • George Naab gave Holderness's horse a sharp kick which made the mettlesome beast jump so suddenly that his rider was nearly unseated.†   (source)
  • They mistook the mettle of their sons.†   (source)
  • His mettle was roused.†   (source)
  • He slowed up and was making the turn, which was down-hill between high banks of yellow clay, when his mettlesome horse heard something to frighten him or shied at something and bolted.†   (source)
  • He had a fine, gallant air; people stood in their doors to look after him, as he went by upon a mettle horse.†   (source)
  • Silvermane's blood was heated; the desert was an old story to him; it had only tired him and parched his throat; this canyon of downward steps and falls, with ever-deepening drops, was new to him, and roused his mettle; and from his long training in the wilds he had gained a marvellous sure-footedness.†   (source)
  • "There are whiles," said he, "when ye are altogether too canny and Whiggish to be company for a gentleman like me; but there come other whiles when ye show yoursel' a mettle spark; and it's then, David, that I love ye like a brother."†   (source)
  • The instant Haley touched the saddle, the mettlesome creature bounded from the earth with a sudden spring, that threw his master sprawling, some feet off, on the soft, dry turf.†   (source)
  • ——And you, good yeomen, Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture—let us swear That you are worth your breeding.†   (source)
  • And there passed before his mind a whole series of these mettlesome, vigorous, selfconfident men, who always and everywhere drew his inquisitive attention in spite of himself.†   (source)
  • Still he must have had fire and mettle in his day, if we may judge from the name he bore of Gunpowder.†   (source)
  • Your horses perhaps are mettlesome.†   (source)
  • You had better mettle as mit ter deyvel, as mit ter hunters, Tey live mit ter gun, and a rifle is better as ter law.†   (source)
  • For example, I cannot credit that the mettlesome poet Byron would have contentedly sat down with Bartleby to examine a law document of, say five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand.†   (source)
  • He stood there with his handsome, easy, important physiognomy; and as Isabel observed him it came over her, as it had done before, that it was strange a man of his mettle should take an interest in a little maid.†   (source)
  • A judge of horses and a sportsman, he had lately procured himself a large, fine, mettlesome, Donets horse, dun-colored, with light mane and tail, and when he rode it no one could outgallop him.†   (source)
  • But when it is a question of putting an idea into practical shape, you have to apply to a man of different mettle.†   (source)
  • Street bands are on their mettle in Golden Square; and itinerant glee-singers quaver involuntarily as they raise their voices within its boundaries.†   (source)
  • Bathsheba, in spite of her mettle, began to feel unmistakable signs that she was inherently the weaker vessel.†   (source)
  • The arrival of this unexpected heir soon taking wind in the court still makes good for the Sol and keeps the court upon its mettle.†   (source)
  • One of his flock had made some rude remarks about the Chaplain's mettle; and to abash him Bennett had marched step by step with the men that day.†   (source)
  • The superstratum of timidity which often overlies those who are daring and defiant at heart had been passed through, and the mettlesome substance of the woman was reached.†   (source)
  • Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, having come to the gathering on his favorite steed Daredevil, a creature, like himself, full of mettle and mischief, and which no one but himself could manage.†   (source)
  • Mettlesome teams drew empty clattering cars down lanes of war, bereft of drivers.†   (source)
  • Think how a stallion fed on clover and barley, mettlesome, thundering in a stall, may snap his picket rope and canter down a field to bathe as he would daily in the river— glorying in freedom!†   (source)
  • And Patroklos rode shouting where he saw the enemy mass in uproar: men fell from their chariots under the wheels and cars jounced over them, and running horses leapt over the ditch— immortal horses, whom the gods gave Peleus, galloping as their mettle called them onward after Hektor, target of Patroklos.†   (source)
  • When the besiegers from their parleying ground , heard sounds of cattle in stampede, they mounted behind mettlesome teams, following the sound, and came up quickly.†   (source)
  • A chariot and two mettlesome fine horses, best of those beside the Akhaian ships, for the man who dares to win fame for himself by a night patrol along the ships, to learn if they are guarded as before.†   (source)
  • Proud and passionate city—mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!†   (source)
  • O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! good and evil!†   (source)
  • Not but what he could feel with mettlesome youth which, caring nought for the mows of dotards or the gruntlings of the severe, is ever (as the chaste fancy of the Holy Writer expresses it) for eating of the tree forbid it yet not so far forth as to pretermit humanity upon any condition soever towards a gentlewoman when she was about her lawful occasions.†   (source)
  • I Join the group of clam-diggers on the flats, I laugh and work with them, I joke at my work like a mettlesome young man; In winter I take my eel-basket and eel-spear and travel out on foot on the ice—I have a small axe to cut holes in the ice, Behold me well-clothed going gayly or returning in the afternoon, my brood of tough boys accompanying me, My brood of grown and part-grown boys, who love to be with no one else so well as they love to be with me, By day to work with me, and by…†   (source)
  • Bring forth men-children only; For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males.†   (source)
  • He was quick mettle when he went to school.†   (source)
  • Anger is like A full hot horse, who being allow'd his way, Self-mettle tires him.†   (source)
  • What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.†   (source)
  • I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this mettle.†   (source)
  • "Ah, senor governor," said another, "what slackness of mettle this is!†   (source)
  • I thought thou hadst been a lad of higher mettle than to give way to a parcel of maidenish tricks.†   (source)
  • They take it already upon their salvation, that though I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff, but a corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy,—by the Lord, so they call me;—and, when I am King of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap.†   (source)
  • They breed very few horses, but those they have are full of mettle, and are kept only for exercising their youth in the art of sitting and riding them; for they do not put them to any work, either of ploughing or carriage, in which they employ oxen.†   (source)
  • Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment: I do think there is mettle in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying.†   (source)
  • Why, now I see there's mettle in thee; and even from this instant do build on thee a better opinion than ever before.†   (source)
  • On the second day of her hunting, as she was returning from the chase, and was arrived within a little distance from Mr Western's house, her horse, whose mettlesome spirit required a better rider, fell suddenly to prancing and capering in such a manner that she was in the most imminent peril of falling.†   (source)
  • You are gentlemen of brave mettle: you would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks without changing.†   (source)
  • A grandam's name is little less in love Than is the doating title of a mother; They are as children but one step below, Even of your mettle, of your very blood; Of all one pain,—save for a night of groans Endur'd of her, for whom you bid like sorrow.†   (source)
  • I am one that would rather go with sir priest than sir knight: I care not who knows so much of my mettle.†   (source)
  • As soon as Rocinante found himself free, though by nature he was not at all mettlesome, he seemed to feel lively and began pawing—for as to capering, begging his pardon, he knew not what it meant.†   (source)
  • I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage: if you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the more.†   (source)
  • Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes, For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in't; which is no other,— As it doth well appear unto our state,— But to recover of us, by strong hand, And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands So by his father lost: and this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations, The source of this our watch, and the chief head…†   (source)
  • O, this boy Lends mettle to us all!†   (source)
  • There are no tricks in plain and simple faith; But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, Make gallant show and promise of their mettle; But, when they should endure the bloody spur, They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades Sink in the trial.†   (source)
  • — [To VIOLA] Your master quits you; and, for your service done him, So much against the mettle of your sex, So far beneath your soft and tender breeding, And since you called me master for so long, Here is my hand; you shall from this time be You master's mistress.†   (source)
  • Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous, Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear Such creatures as men doubt: but do not stain The even virtue of our enterprise, Nor th' insuppressive mettle of our spirits, To think that or our cause or our performance Did need an oath; when every drop of blood That every Roman bears, and nobly bears, Is guilty of a several bastardy, If he do break the smallest particle Of any promise that hath…†   (source)
  • But tell me, as thou livest, hast thou seen a more valiant knight than I in all the known world; hast thou read in history of any who has or had higher mettle in attack, more spirit in maintaining it, more dexterity in wounding or skill in overthrowing?†   (source)
  • I wonder much, Being men of such great leading as you are, That you foresee not what impediments Drag back our expedition: certain Horse Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up: Your uncle Worcester's Horse came but to-day; And now their pride and mettle is asleep, Their courage with hard labour tame and dull, That not a horse is half the half himself.†   (source)
  • …assaulted by only two men while they were so many, betook themselves to their stakes, and driving the two into the middle they began to lay on with great zeal and energy; in fact, at the second blow they brought Sancho to the ground, and Don Quixote fared the same way, all his skill and high mettle availing him nothing, and fate willed it that he should fall at the feet of Rocinante, who had not yet risen; whereby it may be seen how furiously stakes can pound in angry boorish hands.†   (source)
  • Don Quixote was standing by at the time, highly pleased to see his squire's stoutness, both offensive and defensive, and from that time forth he reckoned him a man of mettle, and in his heart resolved to dub him a knight on the first opportunity that presented itself, feeling sure that the order of chivalry would be fittingly bestowed upon him.†   (source)
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