Net·tle n.  Bot. A plant of the genus Urtica, covered with minute sharp hairs containing a poison that produces a stinging sensation.  Urtica gracilis is common in the Northern, and Urtica chamaedryoides in the Southern, United States.  The common European species, Urtica urens and Urtica dioica, are also found in the Eastern united States. Urtica pilulifera is the Roman nettle of England.
 Note: ☞ The term nettle has been given to many plants related to, or to some way resembling, the true nettle; as: Australian nettle, a stinging tree or shrub of the genus Laportea (as Laportea gigas and Laportea moroides); -- also called nettle tree.
 Bee nettle, Hemp nettle, a species of Galeopsis. See under Hemp.
 Blind nettle, Dead nettle, a harmless species of Lamium.
 False nettle (Baehmeria cylindrica), a plant common in the United States, and related to the true nettles.
 Hedge nettle, a species of Stachys.  See under Hedge.
 Horse nettle (Solanum Carolinense).  See under Horse.
 nettle tree. (a) Same as Hackberry. (b) See Australian nettle (above).
 Spurge nettle, a stinging American herb of the Spurge family (Jatropha urens).
 Wood nettle, a plant (Laportea Canadensis) which stings severely, and is related to the true nettles.
 Nettle cloth, a kind of thick cotton stuff, japanned, and used as a substitute for leather for various purposes.
 Nettle rash Med., an eruptive disease resembling the effects of whipping with nettles.
 Sea nettle Zool., a medusa.
 Hedge n.  A thicket of bushes, usually thorn bushes; especially, such a thicket planted as a fence between any two portions of land; and also any sort of shrubbery, as evergreens, planted in a line or as a fence; particularly, such a thicket planted round a field to fence it, or in rows to separate the parts of a garden.
    The roughest berry on the rudest hedge.   --Shak.
 Through the verdant maze
 Of sweetbrier hedges I pursue my walk.   --Thomson.
 Note: ☞ Hedge, when used adjectively or in composition, often means rustic, outlandish, illiterate, poor, or mean; as, hedge priest; hedgeborn, etc.
 Hedge bells, Hedge bindweed Bot., a climbing plant related to the morning-glory (Convolvulus sepium).
 Hedge bill, a long-handled billhook.
 Hedge garlic Bot., a plant of the genus Alliaria. See Garlic mustard, under Garlic.
 Hedge hyssop Bot., a bitter herb of the genus Gratiola, the leaves of which are emetic and purgative.
 Hedge marriage, a secret or clandestine marriage, especially one performed by a hedge priest. [Eng.]
 Hedge mustard Bot., a plant of the genus Sisymbrium, belonging to the Mustard family.
 Hedge nettle Bot., an herb, or under shrub, of the genus Stachys, belonging to the Mint family. It has a nettlelike appearance, though quite harmless.
 Hedge note. (a) The note of a hedge bird. (b) Low, contemptible writing. [Obs.] --Dryden.
 Hedge priest, a poor, illiterate priest. --Shak.
 Hedge school, an open-air school in the shelter of a hedge, in Ireland; a school for rustics.
 Hedge sparrow Zool., a European warbler (Accentor modularis) which frequents hedges. Its color is reddish brown, and ash; the wing coverts are tipped with white. Called also chanter, hedge warbler, dunnock, and doney.
 Hedge writer, an insignificant writer, or a writer of low, scurrilous stuff. [Obs.] --Swift.
 To breast up a hedge. See under Breast.
 To hang in the hedge, to be at a standstill. “While the business of money hangs in the hedge.”
 hedge nettle
      n 1: perennial herb with an odorless rhizome widespread in moist
           places in northern hemisphere [syn: Stachys palustris]
      2: foul-smelling perennial Eurasiatic herb with a green
         creeping rhizome [syn: dead nettle, Stachys sylvatica]