From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishnettlenet‧tle1 /ˈnetl/ (also stinging nettle) noun [countable] HBPa wild plant with rough leaves that sting you → grasp the nettle at grasp1(4), → stinging nettle
Examples from the Corpus
nettle• Avoid spraying your plants with pesticides, grow plants that encourage beneficial insects such as carrots, parsley, parsnips and nettles.• Her ankles and shins were scratched and bloodied, her stockings shredded by the trackside weeds and nettles.• Reaching about a foot in height, whorls of rose-purple flowers the same shape as dead nettles are produced in May.• He told me he was fifteen, and showed me his stings from nettles.• To try and get to it by going round outside the garden wall meant ploughing through waist-high nettles and clumps of bramble.• The stinging nettles and Luke Goddard seemed oddly connected in his mindand I thought I could half understand this.• Focused on a fascinating project, they are oblivious to the nettles of working together in ordinary circumstances.• Tim Renton could be said to have been the first to grasp this nettle.nettlenettle2 verb → be nettled (by something)Examples from the Corpus
nettle• The topic of a Midwestern identity has nettled writers for decades.Origin nettle1 Old English netel 