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.

---

stinging nettle British  

noun

1. See nettle

---

Etymology

Origin of stinging nettle

First recorded in 1515–25

Example Sentences

There’s also a less pervasive threat, stinging nettle.

From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2023

His plant-based focus lineup includes stinging nettle dumpling and smoked beet “kofta.”

From Seattle Times • Apr. 23, 2022

On the side of the road, he got a stinging nettle rash.

From New York Times • May 21, 2019

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