Any plant whose foliage is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
Certain plants that have spines or prickles:
Certain non-stinging plants, mostly in the family Lamiaceae, that resemble the species of Urtica:
From Middle English netle, netel, from Old English netle, netele, netel, from Proto-West Germanic *natilā (cognate with Old Saxon netila, Middle Dutch netele (modern Dutch netel), German Nessel, Middl...
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To pique, irritate, vex or provoke.
[T]his is no lavv unto the vvoof of the neat Retiarie Spider, vvhich ſeems to vveave vvithout tranſverſion, and by the union of right lines to make out a continued ſurface, vvhich is beyond the common art of Textury, and may ſtill nettle Minerva the Godeſſe of that myſtery.