webbed

1. 1
   adjective

   Having the toes or fingers joined by a thin membrane of skin.

   Otters use their webbed paws to glide effortlessly through the water.

   The newborn had slightly webbed fingers, a minor condition surgeons later corrected.

   Note

   Feet and hands are what this adjective describes. Skin spans the gaps between the digits and widens the paddle of a swimming animal, like an otter's paw. At heart it is the past participle of web used as an adjective, in its sense 'to provide with a web': a webbed foot is a foot that has been given one. It is mostly an either-or word, though slightly webbed describes partial joining.

2. 2
   adjective

   Resembling a web, with a network of fine intersecting lines or strands.

   A webbed lattice of veins spread across the leaf's surface.

   The artist painted a webbed network of fine lines over the canvas.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of web.

   Dust and silk had webbed the old chandelier over the years.

   The engineer webbed the metal frame with thin cables for extra support.

   Note

   A regular past form, with the final b doubled before -ed. Most uses are transitive and take an object that gets covered, provided or caught: dust webbed the chandelier, a frame webbed with cables, a rival webbed in a scheme. It can also stand without an object, as when a spider has webbed in a corner. The older meaning 'to weave' is now obsolete.

4. 4
   adjective

   Connected to or available through the World Wide Web.

   The factory's webbed sensors report performance data to a central server.

   Once the thermostat is webbed, you can adjust the heat from anywhere.

   Similarnetworked, connected, online

   Oppositeoffline

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