benettle
benettle verb: to whip or sting with nettles.
Verb
benettle (third-person singular simple present benettles, present participle benettling, simple past and past participle benettled)
- To whip or sting with nettles.
- As they retraced their benettled footsteps, Mr Truscott's silent rage was such as to obscure even […]1968, Evelyn Berckman, The Heir of Starvelings, page 56
- Next to the body let no one gird (or, belt) herself with any kind of belt, except by a confessor's permission, or [let anyone] wear any iron, or haircloth, or hedgehog's skins, or beat herself with them, or with a leaded scourge (i.e., a lead-tipped scourge), with holly or with briars, or bloody...2000, Robert J. Hasenfratz, Ancrene wisse, page 404
- To vex or provoke.
- Where men of ordinary skill, May have the fortune, if they will, To keep in circumstances middling By nothing in the world but piddling ; Hence, with their fancies thus benettled, The future course of life is settled :1814, David Hitchcock, The Social Monitor, page 43
- It seems for this you felt yourself benettled ; You grieve that all as bad has not been settled.1877, Detroit Amateur, The Croaker, page 22
Forms of benettle
| third-person singular present | benettles |
|---|---|
| present participle | benettling |
| past participle | benettled |
| past | benettled |
Origin of benettle
From be- + nettle.
Questions about benettle
- What does benettle mean?
- Benettle means to whip or sting with nettles.
- What part of speech is benettle?
- Benettle is a verb.
- What is the past tense of benettle?
- The past tense of benettle is benettled.
Words near benettle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: benettle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “benettle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/benettle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.