Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The web spun by a spider to catch its prey.
- noun A single thread spun by a spider.
- noun Something resembling the web of a spider in gauziness or flimsiness.
- noun An intricate plot; a snare.
- noun Confusion; disorder.
- transitive verb To cover with or as if with cobwebs.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To cover with a filmy net, as of cobweb.
- To clear of cobwebs.
- noun The net spun by a spider to catch its prey; a spider's web.
- noun Figuratively, a network of plot or intrigue; an insidious snare; a contrivance for entangling the weak or unwary: as, the cobwebs of the law.
- noun Something flimsy and easily rent, broken through, or destroyed.
- noun plural The neglected accumulations of time; old musty rubbish.
- Made of or resembling cobweb; hence, flimsy; slight.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The network spread by a spider to catch its prey.
- noun A snare of insidious meshes designed to catch the ignorant and unwary.
- noun That which is thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; rubbish.
- noun (Zoöl.) The European spotted flycatcher.
- noun a fine linen, mentioned in 1640 as being in pieces of fifteen yards.
- noun a micrometer in which threads of cobweb are substituted for wires.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
spiderweb , or theremains of one, especially anasymmetrical one that is woven with an irregular pattern of threads. - noun One of its
filaments ;gossamer - noun figuratively Something thin and
unsubstantial , or flimsy and worthless;rubbish . - noun An
intricate plot tocatch theunwary - noun Internet a
web page that either has not beenupdated for a long time, or that is rarelyvisited - noun The European spotted flycatcher.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun filaments from a web that was spun by a spider
- noun a dense elaborate spider web that is more efficient than the orb web
- noun a fabric so delicate and transparent as to resemble a web of a spider
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As for Flush's verses, they are what I call cobweb verses, thin and light enough; and Arabel was mistaken in telling you that
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As for Flush's verses, they are what I call cobweb verses, thin and light enough; and Arabel was mistaken in telling you that Miss Mitford gave the prize to them.
The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Kenyon, Frederic G 1898
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"Last time, we felt what we call the cobweb effect," Rice said.
unknown title 2009
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"Last time, we felt what we call the cobweb effect," Rice said.
unknown title 2009
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"Last time, we felt what we call the cobweb effect," Rice said.
unknown title 2009
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"Last time, we felt what we call the cobweb effect," Rice said.
unknown title 2009
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In the full size photo, you can see that a spider has made a cobweb from the tip of the bud to the leaves down the stem.
Archive 2006-10-01 ScienceWoman 2006
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His letter "To the Stocking-Weavers" extended a radical boycott of taxed commodities to paper money, urging workers to keep their savings close at hand "in metal money": "Put it into no funds, no saving banks, no societies, no common stock; for, all these must, at last, rest upon the Paper System, than which a cobweb is not more fragile"
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All are held together by cobweb, which is the favourite cement of bird masons.
A Bird Calendar for Northern India Douglas Dewar 1916
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The cobweb was the magic clue by which mankind was to be rescued from all its errors, and guided safely back to the right.
Doctor Grimshawe's Secret — a Romance Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834
vanishedone commented on the word cobweb
Maybe WeirdNet's thinking here is that spider-webs form a subset of 'things that resemble spider-webs', and it's putting the more general definition at the top...
May 22, 2008
yarb commented on the word cobweb
I love this definition because it's true - it's actually sort of "hypertrue". All cobwebs are so delicate and transparent as to resemble the webs of spiders...
Nice word too.
May 22, 2008
yarb commented on the word cobweb
The Great G minor Fantasia
knits an acoustic cobweb...
- Peter Reading, Night-Piece, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974
June 22, 2008
ramsler commented on the word cobweb
cobwebs are very flimsy spider webs found typically inside a building or house which are often covered or combined with dust or lint. They are distinct from spider webs largely because of the lack of a visible spider and the lack of coherent web patterns associated with spiders. Cobwebs often are simply a single strand of fiber stretched between two surfaces. cobwebs are associated with the disuse of a space or area (and by analogy with fogginess of thought as in the expression "cobwebs of my mind"). "The home hadn't been cleaned in months and cobwebs were visible in many corners"
A humorous question about cobwebs is, "What does a cob look like?"
June 21, 2009