cobweb
[kob-web]
- a web spun by a spider to entrap its prey.
- a single thread spun by a spider.
- something resembling a cobweb; anything finespun, flimsy, or insubstantial.
- a network of plot or intrigue; an insidious snare.
- cobwebs, confusion, indistinctness, or lack of order: I'm so tired my head is full of cobwebs.
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- to cover with or as with cobwebs: Spiders cobwebbed the cellar.
- to confuse or muddle: Drunkenness cobwebbed his mind.
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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
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cobwebs
Contemporary Examples
That he ends up not lighting a lamp but tangled in the cobwebs is one of the truths of this valuable book.
Gregg sent me a video and in it, they describe it as “clearing the cobwebs from the air” and “stepping over a dead body.”
Shailene Woodley Opens Up About Coming of Age, ‘Divergent,’ and the Faults in Our WorldMarlow Stern
January 22, 2014
That night, I dreamed of a square, three-story, concrete building that was dark and dingy with filth, dust, and cobwebs.
Historical Examples
And the mirror was dimmed with dust and overlaced with cobwebs.
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce
In a moment the cobwebs of his debauch began to fall from him, and he became alert.
The Law-BreakersRidgwell Cullum
It was a kind of an attic place, Uncle, all beams and rafters and cobwebs.
Five Mice in a Mouse-trapLaura E. Richards
It would be like visiting the old woman who swept the cobwebs from the sky.
High up in one corner, festooned with cobwebs, are a couple of shelves.
Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2)William Delisle Hay
cobwebs
- mustiness, confusion, or obscurity
- informal stickiness of the eyelids experienced upon first awakening
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cobweb
- a web spun by certain spiders, esp those of the family Theridiidae, often found in the corners of disused rooms
- a single thread of such a web
- something like a cobweb, as in its flimsiness or ability to trap
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Word Origin
C14 cob, from coppe, from Old English (ātor) coppe spider; related to Middle Dutch koppe spider, Swedish (dialect) etterkoppa
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cobwebs
cobweb
n.
early 14c., coppewebbe; the first element is Old English -coppe, in atorcoppe "spider," literally "poison-head" (see attercop). Spelling with -b- is from 16c., perhaps from cob. Cob as a stand-alone for "a spider" was an old word nearly dead even in dialects when J.R.R. Tolkien used it in "The Hobbit" (1937).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper