web

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an intricate network suggesting something that was formed by weaving or interweaving

   the trees cast a delicate web of shadows over the lawn

2. 2
   noun

   The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.

   The sunlight glistened in the dew on the web.

3. 3
   noun

   Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which, when diagrammed, resembles a spider's web.

   The time of his birth, his birth-place, his parentage, are all involved in obscurity; and such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators, that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures with which it is interwoven.

4. 4
   noun

   The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing.

   He caught the ball in the web.

5. 5
   noun

   A latticed or woven structure.

   The gazebo’s roof was a web made of thin strips of wood.

6. 6
   noun

   A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend.

   Careful—she knows how to spin a good web, but don't lean too hard on what she says.

7. 7
   noun

   A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.

   […] And there with ſtately pompe by heapes they wend, / And Chriſtians ſlaine rolle vp in webs of lead […]

8. 8
   noun

   A major broadcasting network.

   […] the first big move toward a contract for television performers was made Friday (20) when the webs agreed to pay them according to the length of the show. […] Altho the major TV webs — NBC and CBS — may fall in line soon, an agreement may possibly be held up by the opposition of DuMont […]

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *webaną Proto-Germanic *wabją Old English webb Middle English web English web From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-West Germanic *wabi, from Proto-Germanic *wabją (“web”), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wab (“web”), North Frisian wääb (“web”), Saterland Frisian Wäb (“web”), West Frisian and Dutch web (“web”), Danish væv (“web”), Faroese vevur (“web”), Icelandic vefur (“web”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk…