Nestling, subs. (old: now recognised).—See quot. 1696.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nestling, Canary-Birds brought up by Hand.
1728. Bailey, Dict., s.v.
To keep a nestling, verb.
phr. (old).—See quot.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nestling. What a Nestling you keep, how restless and uneasy you are.
Nestor, subs. (Winchester College).—An
undersized boy.
Net. All is fish that comes
to net, phr. (colloquial).—All
serves the purpose.
1670. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn], 160, s.v.
1830. Buckstone, Wreck Ashore, ii., 4. We are not on one of our Spanish Islands, where all's fish that comes to net.
Netgen, subs. (back-slang).—Half
a sovereign: see Rhino
[net = ten + gen (q.v.) = a shilling].
Nether-end (or -eye), subs.
(venery).—The female pudendum:
see Monosyllable. Whence
nether-eyebrows (whiskers
or lashes) = the pubic hair;
nether-lips = the labia majora;
nether-work = groping or copulation.
1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, Miller's Tale, 666 [Skeat (1895), i., v., iii]. Thus swyved was the carpenteres wyf, For al his keping and his Ialousye; and Absolon hath kist hir nether ye.
d.1749. Robertson of Struan, Poems, 126. At th'upper End she Cracks her Nuts, While at the nether end her Honour.
Netherlands (The), subs. (venery).—A man's or woman's underparts.
Nettle, verb. (common).—To
annoy; to provoke; to rile
(q.v.); to needle (qv.). To
have pissed on a nettle = to
be peevish or out of temper;
nettled = (1) annoyed, and (2)
afflicted (Amer. Matsell, 1859);
nettler = a spoil-temper (q.v.).—B.E.
(c. 1696); Grose (1785).
a.1592. Greene, George a Greene, 397 [Grosart, Works (1886), xiv., 139]. There are few fellowes in our parish so netled with loue as I haue bene of late.
1625. Massinger, Parliament of Love, iii., 1. Nov. We have nettled him. Peri. Had we stung him to death, it were but justice.
1641. Milton, Animad. upon the Remons. Def., etc. But these are the nettlers, these are the blabbing books that tell.
1767. Fawkes, Theocritus, Idyl 5. I've nettled somebody full sore.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, i., 161. I, tho' nettled that he seem'd to slur . . . Our formal compact.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., iii., 221. Of course he was nettled.
1895. Marriott-Watson [New Review, July 2]. As for that, I said, for I was nettled at his sneering.
Nettle in, dock out, phr. (old).—Fickleness of purpose; thing after thing; place after place.
1369. Chaucer, Troi. and Cres., v. Nettle in, dock out, now this, now that, Pandare?
c.1696, B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nettled. In dock, out nettle, upon the change of Places, when one is no sooner out, but another is in his Place.
Also see Rose.
Nettle-bed, subs. (children's).—See
quot.: cf. Parsley-bed and
Gooseberry-bush: see Monosyllable.
1875. Notes and Queries, 5 S., iii., 'Babies in Folk-lore.' In England every little girl knows that male babies come from the nettle-bed, and the female ones from the parsley-bed.
