spider web

or spider's web

noun

1. the web that is spun by a spider, made of interlaced threads of viscous fluid that harden on exposure to air.

Word History and Origins

Origin of spider web¹

First recorded in 1525–35

Example Sentences

“Everywhere you look, every corner of this school, there’s something going on. There is a giant spider web. Butterflies and bees zip around. There’s bird nests in the bushes.”

From Los Angeles Times

Researchers are even using examples drawn from spider webs to design sensitive microphones that can one day be used to treat hearing loss and deafness and to improve other listening devices.

From New York Times

Instead, China has both built the cyberoperations of its intelligence services and developed a spider web of independent companies to do the work.

From New York Times

Upon her release, Lipschitz said she had been held in tunnels which stretched under Gaza “like a spider web.”

From Seattle Times

Lifshitz, an 85-year-old grandmother who was freed by Hamas, said that after she was seized, she was taken into underground tunnels that she compared to a spider web.

From Reuters