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.

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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

Derived Forms

• cobwebbed
  adjective
• cobwebby
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cobwebs
  plural

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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

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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

Why ask someone else to climb a stepladder to reach a cobweb?

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

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

Or, he’ll see a moth with cobweb stuck on its antenna, and he’ll calmly, lovingly remove it.

From New York Times ● Dec. 12, 2018

Ekon shook himself, brushing away the remnants of the nightmare like a cobweb.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

Brown is eager to wipe off the cobwebs that were growing between his fingers in Philly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

That was once the HBO way, after all: taking a chance on new visions, instead of blowing the cobwebs off old ones.

From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026

The room, indeed, appeared spooky and abandoned with cobwebs and Fey wearing a robe made out of Paddington, which she said she got after hosting “SNL UK” last month.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2026

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

On it, there’s a cat food bowl with dried stuff in it, and drapey cobwebs up in the corners, and a fat spider that has zero fear of being evicted.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

Brown’s cobwebbed mitts are gone and QB Jalen Hurts is spreading the gospel of a “shared mission.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

But one can feel, and share, her delight poking into some of the past’s more cobwebbed corners.

From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2023

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

She pointed to the faded velvet drapes hanging at the windows, the cobwebbed chandelier, the fancy marble fireplace, the high-topped walnut bed, the dusty matching furniture.

From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn

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

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