cob|web

cob|web «KOB _WEHB», noun, adjective, verb, -webbed, -web|bing.

–n.

1. a) the web or net spun by a spider to capture its prey: »

The fly was caught in a cobweb spun over a window in the barn.

b) the stuff it is made of. c) a single thread spun by a spider.

2. Figurative. anything thin and slight or entangling like a spider's web: »

The thief had to confess when he was caught in the cobweb of lies that he had spun.

3. Figurative. any musty accumulation or obstruction: »

A course in profound thoughts underlying relativity and quantum mechanics [would] blow away some of the cobwebs which grow in unventilated ivory towers (Atlantic).

–adj.

thin; like gauze: »

a cobweb veil. Figurative. A cobweb bridge flung from his mind to theirs, an invisible passage (Edith Wharton).

–v.t.

to cover or hang with cobwebs.

╂[Middle English coppe, short for Old English ātorcoppe spider + web]