stinging nettle

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noun

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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Origin of stinging nettle

First recorded in 1515–25

Words nearby stinging nettle

stingaree, stinger, stinginess, stinging capsule, stinging hair, stinging nettle, stinging tree, stingless bee, stingo, stingray, stingy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use stinging nettle in a sentence

He has smuggled out through his family a number of stinging critiques of his captors.
Behind Bars for the Holidays: 11 Political Prisoners We Want to See Free In 2015|Movements.Org|December 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But three months later Wright himself received a stinging rebuke.
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.|David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Just as often, and to more stinging effect, the adjectives come from black people in this town an hour north of Detroit.
A Black Cop’s Tough Words for Mike Brown|Mary M. Chapman|December 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Even her own publication, The New York Times, issued a stinging critique.
A Sexism Problem at The New York Times|Keli Goff|September 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Many were heard coughing and seen rubbing watery, stinging red eyes.
Street Battle Against Cops Again in Ferguson Despite Midnight Curfew|Justin Glawe|August 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
There was a cold, stinging contempt in Varney's tones by no means lost on the listener.
The Weight of the Crown|Fred M. White
Here the love of the cow or the country is a vague thing intended to satisfy one's vanity, or soothe a stinging conscience.
Third class in Indian railways|Mahatma Gandhi
“Abstinence has its drawbacks,” he said, shivering in the bitter wind which whirled the stinging smoke about them.
The Gold Trail|Harold Bindloss
The nurse hurried forward, and Corydon felt a stinging sensation in her side, and then a delightful numbness crept over her.
Love's Pilgrimage|Upton Sinclair
Upward through the stinging blast of the tempest they went, toward the top of a stricken world.
The White Desert|Courtney Ryley Cooper

British Dictionary definitions for stinging nettle

stinging nettle

noun

See nettle (def. 1)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012