cobweb

American  

[kob-web] / ˈkɒbˌwɛb /

noun

• cobwebs
  plural

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.

---

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

---

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

Derived Forms

• cobwebbed
  adjective
• cobwebby
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cobwebs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cobweb

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

Explanation

A cobweb is the net of sticky threads that a spider weaves to catch insects. You can also call a cobweb a spider's web. A cobweb is any spider's web, although some people use it to specify the dense, tangled type of web that certain spiders weave, or to mean a dusty old web, like the ones you might see in your grandparents' attic. Cobweb can also describe some intricate or complicated things: "She got lost in the cobweb of unfamiliar subway lines in the city." It comes from the Old English coppeweb, from the now-obsolete coppe, "spider."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cobweb cobwebs cobwebbed cobwebbing

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

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

I take careful little sips as I fiddle with the app, making a messy cobweb of flavor notes – herbaceous, dry, mineral, astringent – guessing wildly at intensity levels.

From The Guardian ● May 23, 2018

Before the bear could move, a rider’s net hissed through the air, and instantly Iorek was enveloped in steel-strong cobweb.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

This design closely matches earlier observations of crystal formations described as "cobwebs," which spread outward from a central point where the multifaceted ends meet.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 16, 2026

For now, though, investors should prepare to shake off the cobwebs over tech stocks, according to Newton.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 24, 2025

She plans to sweep away the cobwebs and inject warmth and life into a farm mired in portentous dialogue and unmentionable secrets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

The collection had been tucked under a pile of old newspapers and cobwebs in the attic of their family home, according to a press release from Heritage Auctions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025

It was a large room with cobwebs thickly clustered on the ceiling.

From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman

The mythology of Do Your Job and The Patriot Way looked cobwebbed and possibly overrated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025

The pulped peppers return to Avery Island and are aged for three years in stacked oak barrels towering in a pungent, cobwebbed warehouse before salt and vinegar is added in huge vats.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2018

Obama is gone, but Souza remains, brandishing his one-time access like a cobwebbed candelabra.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2017

But the front of the house is ingeniously used, as the show proceeds, to create a sort of cobwebbed cinema-in-hell, where the dead watch reruns of the living.

From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2017

It was like a room in Sleeping Beauty’s castle, with cobwebbed candles mounted in wall sconces, a mirrored vanity table topped with crystal bottles, and a giant oak bed.

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

Many a foreign line will also be flying them, cobwebbing the steadily shrinking globe with faster routes.

From Time Magazine Archive

With rich detail he told readers about one Pierre Grantaire who made a good living by raising and selling spiders for the spurious cobwebbing of wine bottles.

From Time Magazine Archive

There is still the cobwebbing music from beyond and now also a musty cardboard stench in the alley and the frequent whiff of garbage.

From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon

The inevitable thin lines of mist are already cobwebbing the horizons; but there is a good breeze abroad to-day and the clouds are not resting so quietly in the niches as usual.

From A Midsummer Drive Through the Pyrenees by Edwin Asa Dix

When she had watched him tramp up the muddy slope from the bank to the street, Alexander lifted her chin and tossed her head, as if to shake away some cobwebbing thought from the brain.

From A Pagan of the Hills by Charles Neville Buck