Definition of "web"

web

/wɛb/

noun
plural webs
1. The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.
2. (by extension) Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which, when diagrammed, resembles a spider's web.
  Quotations
  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.
  1828, Washington Irving, “Birth, Parentage, and Education of Columbus”, in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: G. & C. Carvill, […], book I, page 3
  [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.
  1851 (indicated as 1852), Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Main-Street”, in The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, page 96
  "But THAT! Was the OLDEN TIMES! A massive, worldwide web of global information has ENTANGLED THE WORLD! People in Beijing can read about a magical incident in Moperville in seconds, and have video of it in minutes!"
  2018 February 14, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, Feb 14, 2018
3. (baseball) The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing.
4. A latticed or woven structure.
  Quotations
  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.
  1866, George Bancroft, “New Netherland”, in History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent, 21st edition, volume II, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, page 281
5. (usually with "spin", "weave", or similar verbs) A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend.
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. (rail transport) 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. (manufacturing) A continuous strip of material carried by rollers during processing.
12. (lithography) A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.
13. (dated) A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood of a carriage.
14. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
  Quotations
  […] And there with ſtately pompe by heapes they wend, / And Chriſtians ſlaine rolle vp in webs of lead […]
  1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Tenth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, stanza 26, page 184
  1. The blade of a sword.
    Quotations
    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.
    1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Second Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, stanza 93, page 38
  2. The blade of a saw.
  3. The thin, sharp part of a colter.
  4. The bit of a key.
15. (dated, US, radio, television) A major broadcasting network.
  Quotations
  […] 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 […]
  1950, Billboard, volume 62, number 43, page 9
16. (architecture) A section of a groin vault, separated by ribs.
17. (medicine, archaic) A cataract of the eye.
proper noun
1. Alternative letter-case form of Web: the World Wide Web.
  Quotations
  No, the web probably isn't addictive in the sense that nicotine or heroin are; no, Facebook and Twitter aren't guilty of "killing conversation" or corroding real-life friendship or making children autistic.
  2013 May 13, Oliver Burkeman, “Conscious computing: how to take control of your life online”, in The Guardian‎
verb
third-person singular simple present webs, present participle webbing, simple past and past participle webbed
1. (intransitive) To construct or form a web.
2. (transitive) To cover with a web or network.
  Quotations
  The canker worm has no shelter upon the tree, but lies out upon the leaf or branch ; this forms itself a house by webbing the corner of a leaf, into which it retreats on the first appearance of danger […]
  1853 June 21, R. C. Stone, “A New Insect”, in Simon Brown, editor, The New England Farmer, volume V, Boston: Raynolds & Nourse, page 362
  In the meantime continents were being ribbed with railways, the atmosphere was being webbed with telegraph wires connecting every important commercial centre […]
  1895, “Has Gold Risen?”, in The Forum, volume XVIII, New York: The Forum Publishing Co., page 577
3. (transitive) To ensnare or entangle.
4. (transitive) To provide with a web.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To weave.
  Quotations
  Item that the Wever whiche shall have the wevyng of eny wollen yerne to be webbed into cloth shall weve werk […][paraphrase] Likewise, that the weaver who is to weave any woollen yarn to be woven into cloth shall weave it well.
  1511–12, “An Act agaynst deceyptfull making of Wollen Cloth”, in The Statures of the Realm, volume III, London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, published 1963, page 28

Definition of "web"

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