spider
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: arts
ball-games
billiards
cooking
cycling
entertainment
food
games
hobbies
lifestyle
mathematics
music
photography
sciences
snooker
sports
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English spiþre, spydyr, spider, spiþer, from Old English spīþra (“spider”), from Proto-West Germanic *spinþrijō, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”). Mostly displaced attercop (“spider, unpleasant person”), now a dialectal term.
Compare typologically Proto-Slavic *mězgyrь (whence Russian мизги́рь (mizgírʹ)) (akin to Latvian mežģīt), Turkish örümcek (akin to örmek).
Inflected forms:
form: spiders
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: spiders
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: spidering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: spidered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: spidered
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating of curds and whey; There came a little spider, Who sat down beside her, And frighted Miss Muffet away.
gloss: A program which follows links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
pos: noun
tags: Internet
countable
uncountable
examples: Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. The first is the spider, also called the crawler, which visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site.
gloss: A float (drink) made by mixing ice-cream and a soda or fizzy drink (such as lemonade).
pos: noun
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
countable
uncountable
examples: 2002, Katharine Gasparini, Cranberry and vanilla ice cream spider, recipe in Cool Food, page 339.
gloss: An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
countable
obsolete
uncountable
gloss: A spindly person.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
gloss: A man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
gloss: A stick with a convex arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of reach at normal extension.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A cast-iron frying pan with three legs, once common in open-hearth cookery.
pos: noun
tags: UK
US
countable
dialectal
historical
uncountable
examples: Cut slices and lay them in cold water in the spider; boil them up two or three minutes, then pour off the water and set the spider again on the coals and brown the slices on each side.
In spider pan or deep skillet set over hot coals, quickly fry a few at a time in deep lard until brown.
2008, Corona Club (San Francisco, California), Corona Club Cook Book, page 202,
Melt ½ the dry sugar in the spider, stirring with knife until all is melted.
gloss: Implement for moving food in and out of hot oil for deep frying, with a circular metal mesh attached to a long handle; a spider skimmer
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: If you are deep-frying your falafel, use a spider or basket to place them gently into the hot oil, which should be preheated to a temperature of 175°C (330°F).
Consider investing in a frying basket or a spider for small amounts of fish. A spider looks like a metal web and has a long handle and can lower and raise fish from the hot oil.
gloss: A part of a crank, to which the chainrings are attached.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Heroin.
pos: noun
tags: slang
uncountable
gloss: Part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A skeleton or frame with radiating arms or members, often connected by crosspieces, such as a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; or a frame for strengthening a core or mould for a casting.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A soft-hackle fly.
pos: noun
tags: England
countable
uncountable
gloss: The network of wires separating the areas of a dartboard.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A spider graph or spider tree.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A type of light phaeton.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: I am also disappointed with the horses, having hardly seen a decent pair yet, while the traps and horses do not look smart and well groomed. There are a great many American spiders used. Have not seen a bullock in the yoke yet.
gloss: A support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The spider is very useful for shooting in the studio or on locations with smooth floors where tripod legs tend to slide.
gloss: A competition in which several participants are spread evenly around the edges of the green, who all make one bowl towards the central jack at the same time; the winner being the person whose bowl ends up closest to the jack.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A bit for turning fasteners with 8-pointed heads.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: To move like a spider.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: A year later she returned to El Cap and spidered up the wall again — this time in 23 hours.
They saved the hall though the facing and part of the roof had to be torn out and replaced, men spidered over the building to repair it before Coaker's arrival.
Briefly he considered letting go to glide along in Radu's wake as the assassin spidered up the wall.
gloss: To cover a surface like a cobweb.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: High walls surrounded it on all sides, each one covered with the skeletal stems of climbing plants that spidered across the stones, and the ground was cobbled between patches of frozen grass.
Large cracks spidered across the mask's glass where the nozzle had hit.
Moss spidered across the stone, fresh green. Seaweed sprouted bright yellows and ochres between the vast webs of fingers.
gloss: To follow links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
pos: verb
tags: Internet
examples: The online dictionary is regularly spidered by search engines.
Related words: spin
spindle
arachnid
Derived words: ant spider
Arctic wolf spider
armed spider
assassin spider
baboon spider
banana spider
barking spider
bear spider
bird dropping spider
bird spider
black and gold garden spider
black house spider
box kite spider
Brazilian wandering spider
bridge spider
brown recluse spider
brushed trapdoor spider
button spider
camel spider
cardinal spider
cellar spider
Chinese spider
cobweb spider
coconut spider
comb-footed spider
crab spider
cricket thief spider
cross spider
daddy longlegs spider
daddy long-legs spider
daddy long-leg spider
Desertas wolf spider
diadem spider
diving bell spider
drider
dwarf cobweb weaver spider
early spider orchid
European garden spider
European spider crab
extended spider
false violin spider
flattie spider
funnel-web spider
giant house spider
goblin spider
gossamer spider
grass crab spider
green lynx spider
ground spider
hairy spider orchid
harvest spider
hobo spider
house spider
hunting spider
huntsman spider
ironcaps spider orchid
Jorō spider
jumping spider
knoppie spider
ladybird spider
leaf-curling spider
liocranid sac spider
long-jawed spider
lynx spider
Mediterranean recluse spider
money spider
mouse spider
my spider sense is tingling
Nosferatu spider
nursery web spider
orb spider
orb-web spider
peacock jumping spider
peacock parachute spider
peacock spider
pelican spider
pirate spider
Port Macquarie funnel-web spider
pumpkin spider
purseweb spider
rabid wolf spider
recluse spider
red-legged golden orb-weaver spider
red spider
respider
rockspider
rock spider
rolling spider
sac spider
scorpion spider
seaspider
sea-spider
sea spider
shepherd spider
spider beetle
spider bit
spider box
spider-catcher
spider chart
spider cloth
spider crab
spider diagram
spider diver
spiderdom
spideresque
spideress
spideret
spider flower
spider fly
spider gag
spider goat
spidergram
spider hole
spiderhunter
spider-hunting wasp
spider in the web doctrine
spiderish
spiderkind
spider lamb syndrome
spiderless
spiderlet
spider lightning
spiderlike
spider lily
spiderling
spiderly
spiderman
spider mill
spider mite
spider monkey
spider naevus
spider orchid
spiderous
spider-panic
spiderphobia
spider plant
spider roll
spider sense
spider-sense
spider shell
spidership
spider solitaire
spider spanner
spider stitch
spider strainer
spider strap
spider syndrome
spider table
spider-tailed horned viper
spider vein
spider veins
spider wasp
spider-webby
spider web
spider-web
spiderweb
spider wheel
spiderwisp
spiderwood
spiderwork
spiderwort
spider wrap
spider wrench
spidery
Spidey
spidroin
spinous spider crab
spiny spider crab
spitting spider
sun spider
Sydney funnel-web spider
tangled nest spider
Tasmanian cave spider
trapdoor spider
triangle spider
turret spider
velvet spider
violin spider
wafer trapdoor spider
wandering spider
wasp spider
water spider
Web spider
wheel spider
whip spider
wolf spider
woodlouse spider
writing spider
yellow garden spider
zebra spider
zipper spider
Translations: