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Defy vs Nettle - What's the difference?

defy | nettle | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between defy and nettle

is that defy is a challenge while nettle is any plant, the foliage of which is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.

As verbs the difference between defy and nettle

is that defy is to renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce while nettle is of the nettle plant and similar physical causes, to sting causing a rash in someone.

defy

English

Noun

(defies)
  • (obsolete) A challenge.
  • (Dryden)

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.
  • * 1603-1625 , (Beaumont and Fletcher)
  • For thee I have defied my constant mistress.
  • To challenge (someone) to do something difficult.
  • * 1671 , (John Milton), (Samson Agonistes)
  • I once again / Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight.
  • * 1900 , Edith King Hall, Adventures in Toyland Chapter 6
  • *:"So you actually think yours is good-looking?" sneered the Baker. "Why, I could make a better-looking one out of a piece of dough."
  • *:"I defy you to," the Hansom-driver replied. "A face like mine is not easily copied. Nor am I the only person of that opinion. All the ladies think that I am beautiful. And of course I go by what they think."
  • To refuse to obey.
  • * 2005 , , Presidential Radio Address - 19 March 2005
  • *:Before coalition forces arrived, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship that murdered its own citizens, threatened its neighbors, and defied the world.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
  • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
  • To not conform to or follow a pattern or certain set of rules.
  • * 1955 , Anonymous, The Urantia Book Paper 41
  • *:By tossing this nineteenth electron back and forth between its own orbit and that of its lost companion more than twenty-five thousand times a second, a mutilated stone atom is able partially to defy gravity and thus successfully to ride the emerging streams of light and energy, the sunbeams, to liberty and adventure.
  • * 2013 , Jeré Longman in the New York Times, W.N.B.A. Hopes Griner Can Change Perceptions, as Well as Game Itself
  • *:“To be determined,” Kane said, “is whether Griner and her towering skill and engaging personality will defy the odds and attract corporate sponsors as part of widespread public acceptance four decades after passage of the gender-equity legislation known as Title IX.”
  • Derived terms

    * death-defying

    Anagrams

    *

    nettle

    English

    (wikipedia nettle) (Urtica)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any plant, the foliage of which is covered with stinging, mildly poisonous hairs, causing an instant rash.
  • # Especially, most species of herb genus Urtica , the stinging nettles:
  • ## Most, but not all, subspecies of ,
  • ## ;
  • # Wood nettle ();
  • # (vern)s and (spurge nettle)s of genus :
  • ## , (bull nettle), (spurge nettle),
  • ## , (Texas bull nettle),
  • ## , (bull nettle),
  • ## (vern) or (tree nettle)s:
  • ### Various species of the genus ,
  • ### ,
  • ### ;
  • # (rock nettle) ();
  • # (small-leaved nettle) ().
  • Certain plants that have spines or prickles:
  • # (ball nettle) ();
  • # , (bull nettle), (silver-leaf nettle), (white horse-nettle);
  • # , (western horse-nettle), (robust horse-nettle);
  • # , (horse-nettle);
  • # Celtis .
  • Certain non-stinging plants, mostly in the same family (Lamiaceae as the stinging nettles, that resemble the species of Urtica :
  • # (dead nettle), (dumb nettle) (Lamium ), particularly , (white nettle);
  • # (false nettle) ();
  • # (flame nettle) or (painted nettle) (Coleus );
  • # (hedge nettle) (Stachys );
  • # (hemp nettle) ();
  • # (horse nettle)s:
  • ## ,
  • ## , (ball-nettle), (Carolina horse-nettle),
  • ## , (bull nettle), (silver-leaf nettle), (white horse-nettle);
  • # (nilgiri nettle), (Himalayan giant nettle) ().
  • Loosely, anything which causes a similarly stinging rash, such as a jellyfish or sea nettle.
  • Derived terms

    * grasp the nettle * nettle rash * nettlelike * nettlesome * nettly

    Verb

    (nettl) (transitive)
  • (literally) Of the nettle plant and similar physical causes, to sting causing a rash in someone.
  • The children were badly nettled after playing in the field.
  • (figuratively) To pique, irritate, vex or provoke someone.
  • Anagrams

    * *