cobweb

American  

[kob-web] / ˈkɒbˌwɛb /

noun

1. a web spun by a spider to entrap its prey.

2. a single thread spun by a spider.

3. something resembling a cobweb; anything finespun, flimsy, or insubstantial.

4. a network of plot or intrigue; an insidious snare.

5. cobwebs, confusion, indistinctness, or lack of order.

   I'm so tired my head is full of cobwebs.

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verb (used with object)

cobwebbed, cobwebbing

1. to cover with or as with cobwebs.

   Spiders cobwebbed the cellar.

2. to confuse or muddle.

   Drunkenness cobwebbed his mind.

cobweb British  

/ ˈkɒbˌwɛb /

noun

1. a web spun by certain spiders, esp those of the family Theridiidae, often found in the corners of disused rooms

2. a single thread of such a web

3. something like a cobweb, as in its flimsiness or ability to trap

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Usage

What does cobweb mean? Cobweb is another word for a spider web. But cobweb is most commonly used to refer to the kind of dusty old spider webs that hang in the corners of places that haven’t been used or cleaned in a long time, like attics and abandoned houses. For that reason, cobweb is often used in expressions like clean out the cobwebs, meaning to do something to clear your mind or make it function normally again, perhaps after a period of inactivity or confusion. Cobweb can also be used as a verb, meaning to cover in cobwebs, as in No one had entered the study for years, and spiders had cobwebbed the entire bookcase. Example: The abandoned house was dusty and full of cobwebs.

Other Word Forms

• cobwebbed adjective
• cobwebby adjective

Etymology

Origin of cobweb

1275–1325; Middle English coppeweb, derivative of Old English -coppe spider (in ātorcoppe poison spider); cognate with Middle Dutch koppe; web

Example Sentences

Make a homemade spider toss game that transforms your living room floor into a huge cobweb.

From Salon • Oct. 30, 2025

Before the space-warrior saga, she traversed the Spider-Verse with cobweb and spider detailing on her “Spider-Man” press tour ensembles.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 25, 2024

House and cobweb spiders challenge them, and brown widows often go on to coexist with them peacefully.

From New York Times • Mar. 13, 2023

That resourcefulness is on full display in Alcaraz’s DIY videos, where he fashions a Halloween feast complete with cobweb funnel cakes and unicorn horns made from meringue.

From Washington Post • Jan. 4, 2023

Upstream a narrow suspension catwalk stretched fifteen hundred feet across the river, swaying slightly, like a cobweb in the evening breeze.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown