trap-door spider

American  

noun

1. any of several burrowing spiders, of the family Ctenizidae, that construct a tubular nest with a hinged lid.

---

trap-door spider British  

noun

1. any of various spiders of the family Ctenizidae that construct a silk-lined hole in the ground closed by a hinged door of earth and silk

---

Etymology

Origin of trap-door spider

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

If the net-caster was a machine gun, then the trap-door spider is the IED of the rainforest.

From The Guardian

He even walked out on the desert a little way that afternoon, with Buddy clinging to his hand to pilot him to the wonderful nest of a trap-door spider.

From Project Gutenberg

The same book tells why the trap-door spider usually builds on a slope.

From Project Gutenberg

The female burrows in the epidermis much as the female trap-door spider burrows in turf in order to make a nest in which to rear her young.

From Project Gutenberg

It is radically unlike any soil on the Atlantic coast—the soil for cañons and the rectangular watercourses, and for the trap-door spider.

From Project Gutenberg