# web

Pronunciation: say "WEB" /wɛb/

## Proper noun · Web

1. The World Wide Web, the collection of pages and other content that can be viewed online.
   - Simple: The World Wide Web, the pages and other things you can look at online.
   - _Most of the newspaper's archive can now be searched on the Web._
   - _The Web has changed how students research their essays._

## Noun

2. The silk structure a spider builds from threads produced by the spinnerets at the rear tip of its abdomen.
   - Simple: The net of thin silk threads that a spider makes from its own body.
   - _Morning frost outlined every web strung across the hedges._
   - _The spider repairs its web each evening, eating the old silk as it goes._
3. Any interconnected set of people, places or things that, drawn as a diagram, would look like a spider's web.
   - Simple: Many people, places or things that are all linked together, like threads in a spider's web.
   - _Historians have tried to untangle the web of alliances that drew Europe into war._
   - _Each new hire joins a web of relationships that no org chart fully captures._
4. The fold of skin stretching between and joining the toes of certain birds and other animals, such as ducks and otters.
   - Simple: A thin fold of skin that joins the toes of some birds and other animals.
   - _The web between a gull's toes spreads wide as it paddles._
   - _Otters have webs between their toes that make them strong swimmers._
5. A plot or scheme.
   - Simple: A secret plan, often to trick or hurt someone.
   - _The spy spent years spinning a web that would bring down the minister._
   - _Too late, the heir realized he had walked straight into his uncle's web._
6. A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend, usually spun or woven by the teller.
   - Simple: A wild, made-up story with more twists than a myth or legend.
   - _Around the campfire, the old guide spun a web so tangled that nobody could tell where the truth ended._
   - _He can weave a web out of a trip to the grocery store, so take his stories with a grain of salt._
8. A structure of crisscrossing strips or threads, whether built as a lattice or woven like cloth.
   - Simple: Something made of thin strips or threads that cross each other in a pattern.
   - _The weaver cut the finished web from the loom and folded it carefully._
   - _The trellis formed a web of cedar laths along the garden wall._
9. The webbing that fills the space between the thumb and forefinger of a baseball mitt.
   - Simple: The part of a baseball glove between the thumb and first finger.
   - _The shortstop snagged the line drive in the web and flipped it to second._
   - _The glove's leather web had stretched after years of use._

## Verb

7. To trap someone or something, or to tangle them up so they cannot get free.
   - Simple: To catch or trap someone or something, or get them tangled up.
   - _Within seconds the spider had webbed the struggling moth._
   - _Old nets drifting at sea can web dolphins and turtles alike._
10. To build a web, as a spider does, or to form into a web.
   - Simple: To make a web, or to spread out like one.
   - _Tiny spiders had webbed between the porch railings overnight._
   - _Frost began to web across the windowpane as the temperature dropped._
11. To cover something with a web or a network.
   - Simple: To cover something with a web, or with lines that connect like a net.
   - _Power lines web the sky above the old neighborhood._
   - _By morning, frost had webbed the car's windows with fine white lines._
12. To fit or supply something with a web.
   - Simple: To add a web to something.
   - _Craftsmen web the mitt by lacing rawhide between the thumb and forefinger._
   - _The upholsterer webbed the frame with jute strips before adding the padding._

## Noun

13. A major radio or television broadcasting network. *(dated, US)*
   - Simple: One of the big companies that broadcast radio or TV shows.
   - _The web hopes its new quiz show will win back the Tuesday night audience._
   - _Sponsors lined up to buy time on all three webs that season._
14. A band of webbing that controls how far the hood of a carriage extends. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A cloth strap that controls how far the top of a carriage opens.
   - _The restorer replaced the frayed web that holds the carriage hood at the right angle._
   - _With the web let out a notch, the hood rose higher over the passengers._
15. A cataract in the eye. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A cloudy patch in the eye that makes it hard to see.
   - _A web had spread across the old sailor's left eye, leaving it pale and nearly blind._
   - _The village healer claimed she could clear a web from the eye with herbs._
17. A unit of Rhenish glass made up of 60 bunches, used in the seventeenth century. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old measure for glass from the Rhine area, equal to 60 bunches.
   - _The merchant shipped three webs of Rhenish glass downriver that spring._
   - _Each web was counted out by the bunch before the glass was loaded onto the barge._

## Verb

16. To weave something, such as yarn into cloth. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To weave threads together, for example to make cloth.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The row of barbs set along each side of a feather's shaft, whether stiff and joined by barbules, as in ordinary feathers, or soft and separate, as in down.
- (noun) The connecting part between the flanges of a structural member, which increases the effective lever arm and so the load the member can carry.
- (noun) The thinner upright section of a railroad rail, between the head at the top and the foot at the bottom.
- (noun) A continuous strip of material carried along by rollers while it is being processed.
- (noun) A long continuous sheet of paper fed from a roll into a printing press, rather than as separate sheets.
- (noun) A thin sheet, plate or strip of metal, such as lead.
- (noun) The thin metal blade of a saw.
- (noun) The thin metal blade of a sword.
- (noun) The bit of a key: the thin, flat metal part that works the lock.
- (noun) The thin, sharp cutting part of a plow's colter.
- (noun) One of the sections of a groin vault that lie between its ribs.

## Origin

From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-Germanic *wabją, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- ("weave"). It is cognate with Scots wab, Dutch web, Danish væv, Icelandic vefur and Swedish väv ("web").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/web (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).