Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 355 Netlynge, Urticacio.

1566 T. Drant Wailyngs Hieremiah in tr. Horace Medicinable Morall sig. K.vj^v Therfore such men God tryes and makes, them feele such netlinge smarte.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Empoule A little wheale,..such as comes after netling.

1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 51 You may..see the Causes, as well as you have formerly felt the Effects, of their Netling.

1814 R. Southey Let. 24 Dec. (1965) II. 113 Nettling is a gentle term for what he has to undergo. In due season he shall be scorpiond and rattle-snaked.

1884 Folk-lore Jrnl. 2 382 This nettling business is only performed up to midday.

1996 E. Lovelace Salt xii. 233 And it was this as well as the nettling by his sister that continued to keep him a little apart.

1998 Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries 34 247 It is likely that nettles and the nettling of those who would not make common cause with the majority were originally a feature of May Day.

1581 J. Studley tr. Seneca Medea (new ed.) v, in T. Newton et al. tr. Seneca 10 Trag. f. 137 Some netling, thorny, stinging plagues vnpractised deuise.

1856 P. H. Goose Tenby App. 387 These filaments..are seen to be chiefly composed of thread-capsules, or ‘nettling-organs’.

1858 G. H. Lewes Sea-side Stud. 149 If the capsules are the nettling organs.

1867 Amer. Naturalist 1 250 The nettling sensation produced by certain Jelly-fishes, when brought in contact with the naked body, has long excited the attention of naturalists.

1890 Cent. Dict. at Lasso cell A nettling cell.

1907 Amer. Naturalist 41 343 The tapering nettling hairs are inserted by their pointed ends into elevations upon the caterpillar.

1913 New Phytologist 12 183 In Pouchetia armata..the cell is provided with nettling organs (trichocysts) consisting of a conical capsule containing a coiled stinging thread.

1948 Sci. Monthly 66 119/1 The arms [of Hydra] are tentacles with nettling cells for catching microscopic life.

1949 W. S. Graham White Threshold in Coll. Poems (1979) 78 The nettling brine Stings through the word.

1993 S. J. Ettinger Pocket Compan. Textbk. Vet. Internal Med. lv. 207 Several species of caterpillars can produce nettling stings.

1607 T. Tomkis Lingua ii. ii Some netling stuffe yfaith; let him write thus.

1652 F. Kirkman tr. A. Du Périer Loves Clerio & Lozia 100 Stinging words and netling speeches.

1702 C. Mather Magnalia Christi vii. iii. 17/2 This Disposition in Mr. Cotton was very Nettling to the Sectaries.

1769 Vindic. D— of G—; in Answer to Let. signed Junius 26 This latter was a nettling Occurrence.

1821 Edinb. Mag. & Literary Misc. Apr. 351 In glisking owre your letter, a kin' o' nettling ramfeezlement gart a' my heart whiltie-whaltie.

1850 E. Bennett League of Miami viii. 41 ‘You had some words together,’ was the rather nettling response.

1908 ‘M. Field’ Queen Mariamne v. i. 104 The nettling dog-star reigns. I am hot; I am distraught.

1938 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 751 The Italian introduction..runs into a nettling panegyric of Italian fascism.

1965 Look 10 Aug. 73/1 Dr. Biezanek is either the nettling crank or the contentious mystic carrying on from the clinic.

1998 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 25 Oct. 28/4 The more nettling dimensions of their relationships are left alone.