Nettle

/ˈnɛtəl/ · noun

Meaning

Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash..

Definitions by Sense

1. Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
2. Certain plants that have spines or prickles:
3. Certain non-stinging plants, mostly in the family Lamiaceae, that resemble the species of Urtica:
4. Loosely, anything which causes a similarly stinging rash, such as a jellyfish or sea nettle.
5. (transitive) Of the nettle plant and similar physical causes, to sting, causing a rash in someone.
6. (transitive, figurative) To pique, irritate, vex or provoke.

Example Sentences

The children were badly nettled after playing in the field.

[…] I am whipp’d and scourged with rods, / Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear / Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.

[T]his is no lavv unto the vvoof of the neat Retiarie Spider, vvhich ſeems to vveave vvithout tranſverſion, and by the union of right lines to make out a continued ſurface, vvhich is beyond the common art of Textury, and may ſtill nettle Minerva the Godeſſe of that myſtery.

His Miſtreſs: vvhoſe Miſtreſs, vvhat Miſtreſs; s'life hovv that little vvord has nettled me!

I saw Mr. Williams was a little nettled at my Impatience […]

Liu, whose political writings had nettled the Taiwanese authorities, was assassinated on October 15, last year, in Daly City […]

Synonyms for nettle

Antonyms for nettle

Related Words

Word Forms

• nettles
• nettling
• nettled

Usage Notes

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