Word of the Day

Saturday, April 28, 2001

nettlesome

\NET-l-suhm\ , adjective;

Causing irritation, vexation, or distress.

Quotes:

Unlike important men of affairs, novelists can turn midnight into sunrise and solve nettlesome world problems wherever their imaginations decree.

-- Herbert Mitgang, "Tales of a Tortured Holy Land", New York Times, August 16, 1988

They were certain that this problem, like so many other nettlesome problems, did not ever have to be faced, but could be quietly made to go away.

-- Lisa Belkin, Show Me a Hero

In the absence of any general agreement about these nettlesome issues, each school and local district arrived at its own answers.

-- Diane Ravitch, Left Back

Origin:

Nettlesome is from the verb nettle, "to sting; to irritate or vex" (from nettle, a plant covered with minute sharp, stinging hairs) + -some.