I. ˈkäbˌweb noun
Etymology: alteration of Middle English coppeweb, from coppe spider (from Old English ātor coppe ) + web; akin to Middle Dutch coppe spider, Danish edder kop, Swedish dialect etter koppa and probably to Old English copp top — more at cop
1.
a. : the network spread by a spider to catch its prey
b. : a single thread spun by a spider ; also : tangles of such thread with adherent dirt and dust that have accumulated
the windows dark with cobweb
festooned with grimy cobwebs
c. : a thread or web spun by an insect larva
2. : a slight or flimsy texture
a cobweb of fine-spun casuistry is dissipated in a breath — B.N.Cardozo
3. cobwebs plural : a clogging or obscuring accumulation especially as a result of disuse, neglect, or stagnation
the magazine … helped to sweep away the aesthetic cobwebs of half a century — H.L.Mencken
: confusion or disorder especially of the mind
cobwebs go out of my mind as I write — H.J.Laski
4. : a snare of insidious meshes
cobwebs of law and politics
II. transitive verb
( cobwebbed ; cobwebbed ; cobwebbing ; cobwebs )
1. : to obscure (as a mind or a subject) by confusion or stagnation
the drunk whose mind is cobwebbed and confused — Lucius Garvin
2. : to cover with a network resembling cobwebs
cobwebbed with ropes — Osbert Sitwell