[a. med.L. urtīcāt-, ppl. stem of urtīcāre (Dief.), f. L. ūrtīca URTICA.]
1. intr. To sting, as or like a nettle; to affect with a tingling pain or stinging sensation.
1843. [see URTICATING ppl. a.].
1855. Owen, Lect. Compar. Anat. (ed. 2), ix. 167. An oval capsule from which a stiff bristle-like spine protrudes: these do not urticate.
1882. Sala, Amer. Revis., I. xix. 271. The Brush-fiend … not only urticates, he hurts.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 469. Various ‘rashes’ … which may urticate or vesicate.
2. trans. To flog with fresh stinging-nettles; also gen., to flagellate, whip.
1861. Illustr. Lond. News, 5 Jan., 10/1. Those who are partial … to being urticated with laurel rods.
1873. M. Collins, Miranda, III. 206. The one at the end of it shall be urticated…. I mean that … the worst man on the list shall be flogged with sting-nettles.
b. To produce urtication in or on (a part of the body, etc.); to affect with a stinging pain.
1862. Temple Bar Mag., VI. 335. Do I urticate my back hair with two brushes?
1882. Sala, Amer. Revis., I. xix. 270. With an ordinary implement made of bristles … he brushes you ‘off’; and while he urticates you he utters a low crooning murmur.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 480. That scratching urticates the lesions is undoubted.
3. To irritate to indignation, etc.; to goad, nettle.
1873. M. Collins, Squire Silchester, II. xvi. 195. Urticated to unwonted indignation, it is thought he swore—slightly.
Hence Urticating ppl. a., causing or producing urtication.
1843. Owen, Lect. Compar. Anat., ix. 102. This stinging or urticating property … procured for the ‘Radiares Mollasses’ of Lamarck the name of Acalephæ. Ibid. (1855), (ed. 2), 176. The urticating tentacles.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. IV. i. 235. The ancients employed urticating caterpillars in the formation of Sinapisms.
1877. Nature, 4 Oct., 475/1. Urticating Organs of Planarian Worms.
