Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of the nature of, resembling, or abounding with cobwebs: as, cobwebby texture; a cobwebby house.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Abounding in cobwebs, or any fine web; resembling a cobweb.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having many cobwebs.
  • adjective Resembling a cobweb.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective covered with cobwebs
  • adjective so thin as to transmit light

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cobweb +‎ -y

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Examples

  • Arachnoid, said of the veil when it is cobwebby, that is, formed of loose threads.

    Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. George Francis Atkinson 1886

  • Still, my feet fidgeted; there was a sort of "cobwebby" feeling on my face, and a tickling sensation in the small of my back, as I stood ready for my first ball, which convinced me I was by no means at home in my new position.

    Parkhurst Boys And Other Stories of School Life Talbot Baines Reed 1872

  • Small lance-shaped leaves, bright green, and kind of cobwebby, clasp together at the top of the stalk, then unwrap to reveal a globe of overlapping, minutely fringed bracts, satiny and tawny like Enstrom's toffee.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories Anna Naeser Special to The Aspen Times Aspen, CO C 2009

  • (Hmm, spell check identifies "cobwebby" as a word.

    I sveikata! tragic_elegance 2009

  • The narrative is written with what I can only describe as a very light hand – there is such delicacy in the early stages of the representation; a cobwebby string of language brings the Dickinsons together in a life that looks so patterned and regular but which turns out to be utterly fragile and insecure.

    On Emily Dickinson « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

  • Ukraine may have a cobwebby attitude to gay partnership, but our own adoption laws are also far too stringent.

    Three cheers for Elton, say I 2011

  • Any competent accountant in Hong Kong can fill you in: cobwebby corporate structures designed to confuse regulators and defy tax collectors; scattered ownership of key "company" assets such as stores or a corporate logo; multiple sets of books; even dodgy employees at local bank branches willing to proffer dummied-up cash-balance verifications to auditors.

    Falling Out of Love with China Joseph Sternberg 2011

  • Now lovingly relocated, cobwebby bookshelves and all, to a former auto showroom made of anciently huge Northwest timbers, on funky Capital Hill in Seattle.

    Bookstore Appreciation Time! 2010

  • All this came back to me recently during a voracious reading session for my new gig -- my publisher has asked me to scour the cobwebby archives for volumes of forgotten lore for a new e-book series.

    Varla Ventura: Paranormal Parlor Games Varla Ventura 2011

  • All this came back to me recently during a voracious reading session for my new gig -- my publisher has asked me to scour the cobwebby archives for volumes of forgotten lore for a new e-book series.

    Varla Ventura: Paranormal Parlor Games Varla Ventura 2011

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  • And then he laughed apologetically, rubbing his hands together, and looking out to sea again as if he wished to appear unconcerned; yet we saw that he wondered if we thought it ridiculous for a man of his age to have treasured up so much trumpery in that cobwebby place

    --Sarah Orne Jewett, 1877, Deephaven

    January 28, 2010