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• dead nettle
  dead nettle

  noun

  any of various plants belonging to the genus Lamium, of the mint family, native to the Old World, having opposite leaves and clusters of small reddish or white flowers.
• dead-nettle
  dead-nettle

  noun

  any Eurasian plant of the genus Lamium, such as L. alba (white dead-nettle), having leaves resembling nettles but lacking stinging hairs: family Lamiaceae (labiates)

dead nettle

American  

noun

1. any of various plants belonging to the genus Lamium, of the mint family, native to the Old World, having opposite leaves and clusters of small reddish or white flowers.

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dead-nettle British  

noun

1. any Eurasian plant of the genus Lamium, such as L. alba (white dead-nettle), having leaves resembling nettles but lacking stinging hairs: family Lamiaceae (labiates)

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Etymology

Origin of dead nettle

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dead nettle dead-nettle

There is some general resemblance, however, between the real nettles and the so-called dead nettles; the leaves for instance of the white dead nettle are very like those of the stinger.

From Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children by W. (William) Houghton

It feeds throughout the winter on the roots of numerous plants, including the dock, dandelion, burdock, white dead nettle, black horehound, and the hop.

From Butterflies and Moths (British) by William S. Furneaux

I had succeeded in gathering some labiates, the dead nettle, the pyramidal bell-flower and the wild thyme, when in the midst of my occupation, I heard the trot of a horse.

From The Lock and Key Library The most interesting stories of all nations: French novels by Julian Hawthorne

In particular the discovery that the golden dead-nettle and the zebra plant use a dual-function flavin-containing monooxygenase, rather than two different cytochrome P450 enzymes as in grasses, was completely unexpected.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 9, 2023

Of the despised dead-nettle he tells us that “the flowers baked with sugar, as roses are, maketh the vitall spirits more fresh and lively.”

From The Old English Herbals by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde

With Lamium maculatum or spotted dead-nettle, the affinity is so close that even Bentham united the two in a single species, considering the ordinary dead-nettle only as a variety of the dappled purple type.

From Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation by Hugo de Vries

Certain orchids, from the peculiar form of their hand-shaped roots, have been popularly termed "Our Lady's hands," a name given in France to the dead-nettle.

From The Folk-lore of Plants by T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton) Dyer

Tell me, has not the Salvia, while remaining so much the same shape as the dead-nettle, devised a wonderful contrivance to make use of the visits of the bee?

From The Fairy-Land of Science by Arabella B. Buckley