spiderweb
Americanverb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of spiderweb
First recorded in 1890–95; v. use of spider web
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A rugged Martian landscape that resembles a giant spiderweb when seen from orbit may hold important evidence about the history of water on ancient Mars.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 14, 2026
Tzahualli is a Nahuatl word for spiderweb, a common metaphor for fragility, interconnectedness, beauty and, not least, potential entrapment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2025
What’s clear is that while platforms or their parent companies might not be sharing certain information across companies due to a spiderweb of capitalistic and legal considerations, women certainly are.
From Slate ● Dec. 5, 2024
One can see in Ernst's statement how this spiderweb of lies serves to distract and confuse.
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2024
For a moment, none of us did anything but stare at the hole and the spreading spiderweb of cracks radiating out from it.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
They used a specialized electron microscope to prod the metal 200 times per second and watched as fractures spiderwebbed across its surface.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 1, 2023
I started my hike at the Surfer’s Beach parking lot and meandered through the tropical forest along a makeshift trail that spiderwebbed in all directions, staying on the path that hugged the coast.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021
Holdouts in billowing raincoats wandered between buildings whose windows were spiderwebbed with tape.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 18, 2018
He or she might be watching the track or monitoring the dashboard gauges, and then suddenly — with a pistol-shot crack — the heavy windshield is spiderwebbed or even caved in.
From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2016
Between them the stucco is spiderwebbed, and pipes poke through in two places.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
“Everyone started spiderwebbing information about our cause,” he said.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 18, 2021
He’s so close, and the room light so bright, even I can see the tiny blood vessels spiderwebbing over his pale irises.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Moss grew thick between its ancient stones, spiderwebbing up its walls like the veins in a crone’s legs.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
The fish slime glistened on his fingers as he raised the horseshoe, and Anya caught the briefest flash of magic spiderwebbing out from it.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
As he did, the axe head in his pocket swung wildly and knocked against the glass pane beside his office's door, spiderwebbing it with cracks.
From Eastern Standard Tribe by Doctorow, Cory
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
