sting of nettle
1
6.7
- noun
- He felt the sting of nettle on his hands after weeding the garden.
Examples
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I felt a sharp sting of nettle when I brushed against the plant.
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The sting of nettle usually fades within a few hours, but can be quite uncomfortable.
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Children playing in the field were warned about the painful sting of nettle.
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Ouch! That was a painful sting of nettle!
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He felt the painful sting of nettle after touching the plant while gardening.
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After brushing against the nettle, she couldn't shake off the sting of nettle on her skin.
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During our hike, I warned my friends about the sting of nettle that could be felt if they wandered too close to the plants.
Synonyms
52
1.4
A sharp, sudden pain like the bite of an insect
1
3.2
A sudden, strong, short pain like a small prick
1
9.9
A stinging, prickling feeling on the skin like a nettle sting
Antonyms
How Painful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'sting' (a localized sudden pain) combined with 'nettle' (a plant that causes skin irritation) linked by the ordinary of-construction indicates pain caused by the nettle. This source/partitive pattern is cross-linguistically common and easily inferable by a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The phrase sting of nettle comes from the real plant because a nettle has tiny hairs that sting the skin when you touch it. So, it means 'a sharp, burning pain'.