cobwebby


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cob·web

 (kŏb′wĕb′)
n.
1.
a. A spiderweb, especially an old one that is covered in dust.
b. A single thread spun by a spider.
2. Something resembling a spiderweb in gauziness or flimsiness: "An extraordinary number of elegant ladies ... flowed in, heels clicking, diamonds flashing, adjusting tiny cobwebs of priceless lace on immaculate coiffures" (Jane Stevenson).
3. An intricate plot; a snare: caught in a cobweb of espionage and intrigue.
4. cobwebs Confusion; disorder: cobwebs on the brain.
tr.v. cob·webbed, cob·web·bing, cob·webs
To cover with or as if with cobwebs.

[Middle English coppeweb : coppe, spider (short for attercoppe, from Old English āttercoppe : ātor, poison + copp, head) + web, web; see web.]

cob′web′by adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.cobwebby - so thin as to transmit lightcobwebby - so thin as to transmit light; "a hat with a diaphanous veil"; "filmy wings of a moth"; "gauzy clouds of dandelion down"; "gossamer cobwebs"; "sheer silk stockings"; "transparent chiffon"; "vaporous silks"
thin - of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section; "thin wire"; "a thin chiffon blouse"; "a thin book"; "a thin layer of paint"
2.cobwebby - covered with cobwebs
dirty, soiled, unclean - soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime; "dirty unswept sidewalks"; "a child in dirty overalls"; "dirty slums"; "piles of dirty dishes"; "put his dirty feet on the clean sheet"; "wore an unclean shirt"; "mining is a dirty job"; "Cinderella did the dirty work while her sisters preened themselves"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
"She's going to a dance, and she's got the sweetest dress for it -- creamy yellow silk and cobwebby lace.
She made ruffled chemises of sheer linen, with her own fine edgings and French embroidery on breast and shoulders; linen hand-made combination undersuits; and nightgowns, fairy and cobwebby, embroidered, trimmed with Irish lace.
There were a couple of brace of cold woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of ancient and cobwebby bottles.
I very much like Jonathan Miller's production, first seen in 1995: within John Conklin's tall, rotating walls, it effectively substitutes a stiffly formal, tea-and-cards-and-brandy Edwardian estate for the misty, cobwebby fairy-tale kingdom of Allemonde; and when the performers are on form and in sync with it, it injects a welcome dose of flesh-and-blood urgency into Maurice Maeterlinck's symbol-laden domestic drama.
Jay had a biopsy in March and received the results in April - the 'cobwebby' area on her tongue was pre-cancerous.
But the box still calls, siren-like, from the cobwebby mental attic, which is why, when we were blessed with the gift of a grandson, I was (am, will continue to be - bring 'em on, kids.
The story of Michael's sale of stake in Naivasha's Buffalo Mall is tied to the purchase of the Sh320 million Hillersdon House, a historic 150-year-old eight-bedroom Victorian house in Devon, England - once dismissed as 'a bat-ridden, cobwebby' investment.
This shift of emphasis is precisely why brand advertising has been relegated to a shadowy, cobwebby place few people want to venture into.
Because, while blood-curdling and cobwebby it may be, we can think of plenty of Hidden fans who'd happily spend a night there scaring themselves silly.
And if it's meant to be this summer's 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle discovered in a cobwebby corner of a lake cabin -- well, there's no law that compels you to spread it out and solve it, even if J.J.
Even as the architecture--with its high, cobwebby windows of light and not of sky--reflected a truncated theology of beauty, its spare, the-building-is-beside-the-point aesthetic made room for a deeper economy of Bible-composted life.
Tidying her room by sweeping it under the bed - so months later you find cups of mouldy milk and a cobwebby Paddington.