cobweb
- 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.
- to cover with or as with cobwebs: Spiders cobwebbed the cellar.
- to confuse or muddle: Drunkenness cobwebbed his mind.
Origin of cobweb
Related Words for cobwebs
web, fiber, network, labyrinth, gossamer, mesh, toil, net, snare, tissue, webbingExamples 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.
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 of cobwebs
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
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
Word Origin for cobweb
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).