cobweb

[kob-web]

noun

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.

verb (used with object), cob·webbed, cob·web·bing.

to cover with or as with cobwebs: Spiders cobwebbed the cellar.
to confuse or muddle: Drunkenness cobwebbed his mind.

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

Related Words for cobwebs

web, fiber, network, labyrinth, gossamer, mesh, toil, net, snare, tissue, webbing

Examples from the Web for cobwebs

Contemporary Examples of cobwebs

That he ends up not lighting a lamp but tangled in the cobwebs is one of the truths of this valuable book.
Slaves In A Family's Past Haunt The Present
Michael Signer
August 28, 2014
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 World
Marlow 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.
A Brigham Young University Professor’s Escape from Mormonism
Lynn K. Wilder
October 20, 2013

Historical Examples of cobwebs

And the mirror was dimmed with dust and overlaced with cobwebs.
The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce
In a moment the cobwebs of his debauch began to fall from him, and he became alert.
The Law-Breakers
Ridgwell Cullum
It was a kind of an attic place, Uncle, all beams and rafters and cobwebs.
Five Mice in a Mouse-trap
Laura E. Richards
It would be like visiting the old woman who swept the cobwebs from the sky.
Harper's Young People, June 29, 1880
Various
High up in one corner, festooned with cobwebs, are a couple of shelves.
Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2)
William Delisle Hay

British Dictionary definitions for cobwebs

cobwebs

pl n

mustiness, confusion, or obscurity
informal stickiness of the eyelids experienced upon first awakening

cobweb

noun

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

Derived Formscobwebbed, adjectivecobwebby, adjective

Word Origin for cobweb

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cobwebs

cobweb

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).