COBWEB • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Cobweb

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/kˈɑbwˌɛb/ Listen

noun

Cobweb n.

The network spread by a spider to catch its prey.

A snare of insidious meshes designed to catch the ignorant and unwary. "I can not but lament thy splendid wit Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools."

That which is thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; rubbish. "The dust and cobwebs of that uncivil age."

(Zool.) The European spotted flycatcher.

Cobweb lawn, a fine linen, mentioned in 1640 as being in pieces of fifteen yards. "Such a proud piece of cobweb lawn."

Cobweb micrometer, a micrometer in which threads of cobweb are substituted for wires.

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Etymology of 'Cobweb'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cobweb" Quotes from Famous Books

... did not even amuse her by his calf-like pursuit. All that was ruthless in her rose up and sneered at his weakness and his timid assurance, which had the same effect as one of those horrible streamers of cobweb that catch the face as one walks unwarily along a dusky lane. Only her native resoluteness enabled her to show Gaga a false patience. Only her insensitiveness made his constant caress endurable. Sally blinked sometimes ...

— Coquette • Frank Swinnerton

... down upon the steps in helpless dismay, and tears began to drop from Eliza's eyes, when Mother Mayberry appeared upon the scene of action, stiff and rustling as to black silk gown, capped with a cobweb of lace over the water-waves and ...

— The Road to Providence • Maria Thompson Daviess

... our educational evolution is perhaps worth summarizing. In the early days of colonization the Church of England spun an educational cobweb, which it has been very difficult to sweep away, and which still remains in a fragmentary state as an evidence of past good service. When the education of the first settlers was in danger of being altogether neglected, the Church put forth the greatest energy ...

— Town Life in Australia - 1883 • R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny

... Frank was furiously busy, working the darkened stellene of his bubb from the drum, letting it spread like a long wisp of silvery cobweb against the stars, letting it inflate from the air-flasks to a firm and beautiful circle, attaching the rigging, the fine, radial spokewires—for which the blastoff drum itself now formed the hub. To the latter he now attached his full-size, sun-powered ionic motor. Then he crept through the double ...

— The Planet Strappers • Raymond Zinke Gallun

... We cannot always be going back, like a Hindoo history, to the foundations of the world. Some things may be taken for granted. How this simple axiom sweeps away, for instance, the cobweb speculations as to whether voting is a natural right, or a privilege delegated by society! No matter which. Take it which way you please. That is an abstract question; but the practical question is a very ...

— Women and the Alphabet • Thomas Wentworth Higginson

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