nettle
Americannoun
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any plant of the genus Urtica, covered with stinging hairs.
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any of various allied or similar plants.
verb (used with object)
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to irritate, annoy, or provoke.
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to sting as a nettle does.
idioms
noun
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any weedy plant of the temperate urticaceous genus Urtica, such as U. dioica ( stinging nettle ), having serrated leaves with stinging hairs and greenish flowers
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any of various other urticaceous plants with stinging hairs or spines
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any of various plants that resemble urticaceous nettles, such as the dead-nettle, hemp nettle, and horse nettle
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to attempt or approach something with boldness and courage
verb
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to bother; irritate
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to sting as a nettle does
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has nettledperfect 3rd person singular
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have nettledperfect
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have been nettlingperfect progressive
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am nettlingprogressive 1st person singular
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is nettlingprogressive 3rd person singular
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are nettlingprogressive
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has been nettlingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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nettlessingular 3rd person
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nettlingparticiple
Past
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had nettledperfect
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was nettlingprogressive singular
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were nettlingprogressive plural
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had been nettlingperfect progressive
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nettledparticiple
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nettledsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of nettle
before 900; Middle English; Old English netele (noun); cognate with Dutch netel, German Nessel, Norwegian netla
Explanation
If you know what a nettle is—it's a plant with stinging hairs—then you'll have no trouble remembering the verb nettle: it means to annoy, bother, irritate, or bedevil. A kid sister, a mosquito, an angry boyfriend, or a hot, muggy day: all of these are examples of things that might nettle a person. When you nettle someone, you act like a nettle; you annoy, bother, and generally tick off a person. The person who nettles you can be called nettlesome, which means that they're acting like a nettle. I find that the very sound of his voice nettles me. The sound alone makes me wish he would just shut up.
Vocabulary lists containing nettle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Within hours, my menu, printed daily in the kitchen of a little French cafe in Friday Harbor, boasted Nettle Soup.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 18, 2023
Washington stands quietly in the back, letting Andrea Jimenez of Herb Walk LA guide the group in identifying over 10 plants from Stinging Nettle to California sagebrush.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2023
The World Nettle Eating Competition sees hopefuls try and chew their way through as many stinging nettles as they can in one hour.
From BBC • Jun. 24, 2022
Despite disagreeing with the visa cancellation, Newman had “no right to treat it as nought”, Nettle said.
From The Guardian • Oct. 2, 2015
Turner was thinking this when Nettle gripped his arm and pointed.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
