sb. Also spider’s web.
1. A cobweb. Freq. fig. or in fig. context.
α. 1535. Coverdale, Job viii. 14. His confidence shalbe destroyed, for he trusteth in a spyders webbe.
1611. Bible, Isaiah lix. 5. They hatch cockatrice egges, and weaue the spiders web.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Spider, Some in France have made a sort of Silk of Spiders Webs.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Web, Spider’s-Web, or Cob-Web.
1745. Transl. & Paraph. Sc. Ch., XXIV. ii. As the spider’s web, when try’d it yieldeth, breaks and flies.
β. a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. II., Wks. (1711), 28. Wise Princes suffered Houses to grow as Men do Spider-webs, not taking heed of them so long as they were small.
1822. Byron, Werner, IV. i. 308. My destiny has so involved about me Her spider web.
1889. Spectator, 9 Nov., 630/2. These spider-webs of fashion appear to confine the freedom of those who suffer under them more effectually than brick walls or bars of iron.
2. transf. and fig. Something resembling a cobweb in nature or appearance.
1699. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Spider’s-web, the subtilties of Logic.
1864. Browning, Caliban upon. Setebos, 13. He looks out o’er yon sea which sunbeams cross And recross till they weave a spider-web.
3. attrib. and Comb., as spider-web bridge, scales, etc. Also spider(’s)-web-like.
1885. J. E. Taylor, Brit. Fossils, i. 28. For the passage of spider’s-web-like threads of protoplasm.
1891. H. Herman, His Angel, 33. The spiderweb-like chaos of jagged beams.
1897. Outing, XXIX. 347/1. His father was old, and soon must cross the spider-web bridge, and leave his son to rule.
1898. Weekly Reg., 10 Sept., 328. Away, then, Messieurs Rigourists, with your spider-web scales.
Hence Spider-web v. trans., to cover with a network resembling a spider-web.
1894. W. T. Stead, If Christ came to Chicago, IV. iii. 286. The town was being spider-webbed with wires.
