spider

Less common meanings

4. 4
   spread (cracks)verbintransitive

   To spread over a surface in a fine, web-like network of lines or cracks.

   Thin fractures spider through the windshield where the stone struck.

   Veins of ice spidered across the pond overnight.

   UsageUsually followed by across, through or over: cracks spidered across the glass.

   Similarspread, radiate

   Note

   Here the subject is not a moving creature but a spreading pattern: cracks, bare plant stems, moss. The picture is the web rather than the scrambling legs, and the verb describes how a pattern reaches out over a surface rather than how anything travels.

5. 5
   creepverbintransitive

   To move in the manner of a spider, creeping or scrambling with limbs splayed.

   The free climbers spider across the overhang with remarkable control.

   She spidered along the narrow ledge, gripping every crack as she went.

   UsageUsually followed by a direction word: spidered up the wall, spidered along the ledge.

   Similarscramble, creep, crawl, scuttle

   Note

   The verb suits clinging, climbing movement with the body spread against a steep surface. Writers use it of a climber going up El Cap, and of the workmen in Michael Crummey's Galore (2009) who "spidered over the building" to repair it. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Writers use 'spidered' of a climber ascending El Cap. en.wiktionary.org
   • Michael Crummey wrote Galore, first published in 2009. en.wikipedia.org
   • Galore describes men repairing a building with the exact words 'spidered over the building'. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   wire scoopnouncountable or uncountable

   A kitchen tool with a shallow wire-mesh basket on a long handle, used to lift and drain food from hot oil or water, or to skim broth.

   The cook lowered the dumplings into the oil with a spider and fished them out a minute later.

   When the fritters turn golden, lift them out of the bubbling oil with a spider and set them on a rack to drain.

   Similarskimmer

   Note

   The other kitchen spider, and the one still in daily use. Anna and David Kasabian's The Wild Fish Cookbook (2008) says its wire mesh looks "like a metal web." Cookery manuals offer it as the alternative to a frying basket for lowering and lifting a few pieces at a time. Its fuller name, spider skimmer, keeps it apart from the three-legged hearth pan. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Anna and David Kasabian's cookbook describes a spider using the exact words 'like a metal web'. en.wiktionary.org
   • Cookery instructions recommend a spider as an alternative to a frying basket for small quantities. en.wiktionary.org
   • Spider skimmer is another name for this utensil. en.wiktionary.org
   • The other kitchen spider is a three-legged pan used in hearth cooking. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   lanky personnounslangcountable or uncountable

   A thin, lanky person whose long, spindly limbs suggest a spider's legs.

   He was a tall, bony spider of a man who had to duck through every doorway.

   She grew into a lanky spider, towering over her classmates.

   UsageYou can say a spider of a man. Calling someone a spider comments on their build and may sound unkind.

   Similarbeanpole

   Note

   The comparison is to the legs: a long-legged spider is mostly limb and very little body, and the slang applies that picture to a tall, thin person. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Long-legged spiders can have legs much longer than their bodies, supporting the visual description. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   spoked framenouncountable or uncountable

   A frame or part with several arms spreading out from a center, as in a flywheel, bicycle crank, tripod base or resonator guitar.

   Like the ribs of an umbrella, radiating from a central point to give a larger structure its shape and strength.

   Engineers cast the spider as a single piece so the flywheel spokes could bear high rotational stress.

   On a resonator guitar, the bridge rests on an aluminum spider that passes the string vibrations to the cone.

   Note

   The engineer's general use, of which several specialist meanings are particular cases. Anything built as arms radiating from a hub can be a spider: the hub and spokes of a flywheel, the body of a piston head, the frame inside a casting core. The arms of a bicycle crank that hold the chainrings are one familiar example. The common idea is always the body-and-legs layout, never the material. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • The general engineering sense denotes a frame with radiating members; examples include flywheel hubs and spokes, piston-head bodies, and frames strengthening casting cores. en.wiktionary.org
   • A bicycle crank's spider is the multiarmed part to which chainrings attach. sheldonbrown.com
9. 9
   cue restnouncountable or uncountable

   A rest with a convex, arch-shaped notched head, used to support the cue when the cue ball lies beyond normal reach.

   She reached for the spider when the cue ball ended up against the back rail.

   Resting his cue on the spider, he calmly potted the long red.

   Similarbridge

   Note

   A piece of table equipment in snooker and billiards, recognizable by its arched, notched head. Players also call it a bridge. It comes out when the cue ball lies beyond the normal stretch of the arm or another ball blocks the cue. Players reach for the spider or rest the cue on it, and then play the shot from that support. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • A spider is equipment used in snooker and billiards, with an arched, notched head. en.wiktionary.org
   • A spider is also called a bridge. en.wiktionary.org
   • A spider is also used to raise the cue over obstructing balls. en.wikipedia.org
   • Players support the cue on the spider to play a shot. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    ice cream floatnounAustraliaNew Zealandcountable or uncountable

    A float made by mixing ice cream into a soda or other fizzy drink such as lemonade.

    The cafe's lime spider arrived fizzing, with a melting scoop on top.

    On hot afternoons the kids begged for spiders from the corner shop.

    UsageThe flavor usually goes first: a lime spider. Elsewhere the same drink is called a float.

    Similarfloat

    Note

    An ice-cream soda under its Australian and New Zealand name. Elsewhere the same drink is simply a float. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • A spider is an Australian and New Zealand name for an ice-cream soda or float. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    dartboard wiresnouncountable or uncountable

    The network of thin wires that separates the scoring sections of a dartboard.

    The dart struck the spider and dropped to the floor without scoring.

    Thinner wires in the spider mean fewer frustrating bounce-outs.

12. 12
    three-legged pannoundialectalhistoricalcountable or uncountable

    A cast-iron frying pan, originally one with three legs for cooking over an open hearth.

    She set the spider over the glowing coals and dropped in the bacon.

    In spider pan or deep skillet set over hot coals, quickly fry a few at a time in deep lard until brown.

    2005, Marty Davidson, Grandma Grace's Southern Favorites

    Note

    A pan that stands on its own legs: three iron feet hold it over the coals of an open hearth. Mary Hooker Cornelius's The Young Housekeeper's Friend (1846) sets "the spider again on the coals" as casually as we would say skillet. The word now lives on mainly in dialect and in family recipe books, where spider pan can appear beside its plain equivalent, deep skillet. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The historical cooking pan had three iron legs for standing over hearth coals. en.wiktionary.org
    • Mary Hooker Cornelius wrote The Young Housekeeper's Friend. gutenberg.org
    • The book contains the exact words "the spider again on the coals". gutenberg.org
13. 13
    heroinnounslanguncountable

    The addictive opioid drug heroin.

    Similarsmack, junk, horse, dope, brown

    Note

    The word works only where drugs are already the topic. In any other conversation a listener will hear one of the many ordinary meanings instead, and that is part of what makes it useful as a covert name.

14. 14
    carriagenounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    A light, open horse-drawn carriage of the phaeton type.

    She kept a trim spider for quick trips into the village.

    He hitched the mare to the spider and set off at a brisk trot.

    Note

    A carriage name from the horse-drawn era, now out of use. The 1901 report "To Australia and Back" in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record notes "a great many American spiders" among the local traps. That places the word among the everyday names for light carriages. Today it turns up only in historical writing about the period. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Spider was a name for a light, open horse-drawn carriage. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record published “To Australia and Back” in 1901, containing the quoted words in a discussion of horses and traps. This supports the inference that spider was an ordinary carriage name. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    nounobsoleteAustraliaNew Zealandcountable or uncountable

    A mixed alcoholic drink made from brandy combined with lemonade or ginger beer.

    Note

    An older and stronger drink than the ice-cream spider: brandy lengthened with lemonade or ginger beer. It belonged to Australian and New Zealand drinking and has since dropped out of use. You will meet it in older writing from those countries. A spider ordered there today will arrive with ice cream, not brandy. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The alcoholic spider predates the ice-cream version: the brandy-and-lemonade drink appears in an 1860 publication. files02.sl.nsw.gov.au
    • The ice-cream float dates from later than that documented alcoholic spider; Wikipedia gives 1874 for its invention. en.wikipedia.org
    • A spider could consist of brandy mixed with lemonade. files02.sl.nsw.gov.au
    • A spider could also consist of brandy mixed with ginger beer. en.wikisource.org
    • The alcoholic sense belonged to Australian and New Zealand usage. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    noununcountable

    A solitaire game played with two decks of cards, in which each suit is stacked in a column from king down to ace and then taken off the table.

    She shuffled two decks together and dealt out a game of spider at the kitchen table.

    He finally cleared every column in spider after a dozen failed deals.

    UsageNo article: play spider, a game of spider.

17. 17
    nounslang

    A man who won't leave a woman alone in a bar or other public social setting, approaching her again and again.
18. 18
    noun

    In graph theory, a tree in which all paths radiate from a single central vertex; also called a spider tree.
19. 19
    nounEngland

    An artificial fishing fly of the soft-hackle type, dressed with a slim body and a few turns of soft, mobile feather fibers.
20. 20
    noun

    A bowls contest in which players spaced evenly around the green each deliver one bowl toward the central jack at once, the bowl finishing closest to the jack winning.