spidery

[spahy-duh-ree]

adjective

like a spider or a spider's web.

full of spiders.

Origin of spidery

First recorded in 1830–40; spider + -y¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for spidery

Contemporary Examples of spidery

Soon Stilts would be stepping his spidery legs over me to face off with Frank.
‘Tracing the Blue Light’: Read Chapter 1 of Eileen Cronin’s ‘Mermaid’
Eileen Cronin
April 8, 2014
Around the edges in her own spidery scrawl she would ask how I was.
She Taught Me to Cook—and Called Me a Klutz
Sandra McElwaine
August 6, 2009
Here is a large pile of spectacles, a spidery mass of rusted wire-frames and dusty lenses.
My Visit To Hell
Christopher Buckley
January 30, 2009

Historical Examples of spidery

There was a crackling, and the long, spidery limbs quivered and writhed.
The Forgotten Planet
Murray Leinster
It was written in an old-fashioned, lady's hand, angular and spidery.
An Outback Marriage
Andrew Barton Paterson
No doubt there was a sensation of the spidery in my embrace.
Memoirs of a Midget
Walter de la Mare
The four Gnii went into a small huddle, waving their spidery legs at each other.
Mr. President
Stephen Arr
The Chief grimaced, but he went back to the assembly of the spidery device.
Space Tug
Murray Leinster

British Dictionary definitions for spidery

spidery

adjective

thin and angular like a spider's legsspidery handwriting

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 spidery

adj.

1825, from spider + -y (2).