Word: web Part of Speech: noun 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 vev (“web”), Swedish väv (“web”); also Cornish goghi (“wasps”), Irish foich, foiche, puch (“wasp”), Welsh gwchi (“drone”), Latin vespa (“wasp”), Ancient Greek ὑφή (huphḗ, “web”), ὑφαίνω (huphaínō, “to weave”) (whence Greek ανυφαίνω (anyfaíno), υφαίνω (yfaíno, “to weave”)), Albanian vej (“to weave”), Latvian lapsene (“wasp”), Lithuanian vapsvà (“wasp”), Old Prussian wobse (“wasp”), Belarusian аса́ (asá, “wasp”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian оса́ (osá, “wasp”), Czech vosa (“wasp”), Polish, Slovak, and Slovene osa (“wasp”), Serbo-Croatian о̀са, òsa (“wasp”), Armenian մոզ (moz, “a kind of fly that bites horses and cattle”), Northern Kurdish moz (“hornet; wasp”), Persian بافتن (bâftan, “to weave”), Tocharian A wäp- (“to weave”), Tocharian B wāp- (“to weave”), Sanskrit उभ्नाति (ubhnāti, “to hurt, kill; to cover; fill”). Pronunciation: /wɛb/ 1. The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb. Example: The sunlight glistened in the dew on the web. 2. Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which, when diagrammed, resembles a spider's web. Labels: broadly Example: 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. Example: [T]he blame must rest on the sombre spirit of our forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a single thread of rose-color or gold, and not on me, who have a tropic-love of sunshine, and would gladly gild all the world with it, if I knew where to find so much. 3. The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing. Example: He caught the ball in the web. 4. A latticed or woven structure. Example: The gazebo’s roof was a web made of thin strips of wood. Example: The colonists were forbidden to manufacture any woollen, or linen, or cotton fabrics ; not a web might be woven, not a shuttle thrown, on penalty of exile. 5. A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend. Labels: usually Example: Careful—she knows how to spin a good web, but don't lean too hard on what she says. Example: a tangled web of deception 6. A plot or scheme. 7. The interconnection between flanges in structural members, increasing the effective lever arm and so the load capacity of the member. 8. The thinner vertical section of a railway rail between the top (head) and bottom (foot) of the rail. 9. A fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds, or of other animals. 10. The series of barbs implanted on each side of the shaft of a feather, whether stiff and united together by barbules, as in ordinary feathers, or soft and separate, as in downy feathers. 11. A continuous strip of material carried by rollers during processing. 12. A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper. 13. A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass containing 60 bunches. Labels: obsolete 14. A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood of a carriage. Labels: dated 15. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead. Example: […] And there with ſtately pompe by heapes they wend, / And Chriſtians ſlaine rolle vp in webs of lead […] 16. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead. Example: Argant a ſword, whereof the web was ſteele, / Pommell, rich ſtone ; hilts, gold, approu’d by tuch, / With rareſt workmanſhip all forged weele, / The curious art exceld the ſubſtance much. 17. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead. 18. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead. 19. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead. 20. A major broadcasting network. Labels: US, dated Example: […] 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 […] Example: ABC-TV this week put into effect its long anticipated plans to move into daytime programming in a bigger way by opening up its 4-5 across-the-board strip. The web is using its "Mickey Mouse Club," which is stoutly anchored in the 5-6 p.m. slot, as a backing up point for its afternoon expansion. 21. A section of a groin vault, separated by ribs. 22. A cataract of the eye. Labels: archaic 23. Woven cloth or material. Labels: obsolete 24. A piece of cloth or fabric, as off the loom. Labels: obsolete Example: She was presented with webs of the finest cloth, and with boxes of precious ointments.