be in fine fettle

To be in good physical or mental health. A: "I heard you had the flu last week, so how are you feeling now?" B: "I'm finally back in fine fettle, thank goodness!" I was in fine fettle for a while, but now that school is over I'm feeling pretty sad. I'm too sleep deprived these days to be in fine fettle.

See also: fettle, fine

in fine fettle

In good physical or mental health. A: "I heard you had the flu last week, so how are you feeling now?" B: "I'm finally back in fine fettle, thank goodness!" I had been in fine fettle for a while, but now that school is over I'm feeling pretty sad. Yeah, the breakup did really hit me hard, and it took time to recover. But, don't worry, I'm in fine fettle now.

See also: fettle, fine

in fine fettle

INFORMAL, OLD-FASHIONED

If someone or something is in fine fettle, they are in very good health or condition. You seem in fine fettle. Helped by low interest rates, the banks are in fine fettle.

See also: fettle, fine

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

in fine fettle

in very good condition.

Fettle was recorded in a mid 18th-century glossary of Lancashire dialect as meaning ‘dress, case, condition’. It is now seldom found outside this phrase and its variants, which include in good fettle and in high fettle .

See also: fettle, fine

in fine/good ˈfettle

(old-fashioned, informal) healthy and cheerful: After ten hours’ sleep and a good long run, I was in fine fettle. OPPOSITE: be, feel, etc. out of sorts

fine fettle, in

In excellent condition. This expression comes from the old dialect verb “to fettle,” which meant to put right. It was first put as “in good fettle,” and was so used throughout the nineteenth century. Alliteration has helped it to survive.