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cobweb

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒbwɛb/

The English word “cobweb” has 7 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A spiderweb, especially a large one, an old abandoned one covered with debris and dust or an asymmetrical one woven with an irregular pattern of threads.
  2. One of a spiderweb's filaments; gossamer; anything flimsy and gauzy, intricately interconnected or otherwise like a cobweb.
  3. An intricate plot to catch the unwary; something entangling or confusing.
  4. Something thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; valueless remainder.
  5. Fuzzy inexact memories; confusion.
  6. A web page that either has not been updated for a long time, or one that is rarely visited.
  7. The European spotted flycatcher, Muscicapa striata.

Etymology

From Middle English copweb, coppeweb, coppewebbe, from Old English ātorcoppe (“spider”) + Old English webb. Compare Middle Dutch kopwebbe, German Low German Kobbenwebbe (Westphalian). By surface analysis, cob (“spider”, obsolete) + web.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.