stinging nettle

American  

noun

1. a bristly, stinging Eurasian nettle, Urtica dioica, naturalized in North America, having forked clusters of greenish flowers, the young foliage sometimes cooked and eaten like spinach by the Scots.

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stinging nettle British  

noun

1. See nettle

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Etymology

Origin of stinging nettle

First recorded in 1515–25

Example Sentences

Washington stood quietly in the back, letting Andrea Jimenez of Herb Walk L.A. guide the group in identifying plants from stinging nettle to California sagebrush.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2023

For instance, stinging nettle works just as fast as any antihistamine for hay fever, without any of the downside of the antihistamine.

From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2017

In the understory, last fall’s leaves softened by winter’s rainfall are punctuated with the first growth of stinging nettle.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 21, 2017

There have been times where it has felt like someone is holding a stinging nettle to my face.

From BBC • Oct. 14, 2016

She caught a fleeting glimpse of the last speaker, her long, thin neck and green sunbonnet sticking up out of a tangle of bushes, like a stinging nettle in a garden.

From In Orchard Glen by MacGregor, Mary Esther Miller