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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[

Cob

a spider +

web

The network spread by a spider to catch its prey.

A snare of insidious meshes designed to catch the ignorant and unwary.

I can not but lament thy splendid wit
Entangled in the

cobwebs

of the schools.

Cowper.

That which is thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; rubbish.

The dust and

cobwebs

of that uncivil age.

Sir P. Sidney.

(Zool.)

The European spotted flycatcher.

Cobweb lawn

a fine linen, mentioned in 1640 as being in pieces of fifteen yards.

Beck. Draper’s Dict.

–

Cobweb micrometer

a micrometer in which threads of cobweb are substituted for wires.

, n.

The line, thread or filament which a spider spins from its abdomen; the net-work spread by a spider to catch its prey. Hence,

Any snare, implying insidiousness and weakness.

In this sense it is used adjectively or in composition, for thin, flimsy; as a cobweb law.

Or slender, feeble; as the cobweb thread of life.