web Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an intricate network suggesting something that was formed by weaving or interweaving
    • the trees cast a delicate web of shadows over the lawn
  2. noun an intricate trap that entangles or ensnares its victim
    entanglement.
  3. noun the flattened weblike part of a feather consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft
    vane.
  4. noun an interconnected system of things or people
    network.
    • he owned a network of shops
    • retirement meant dropping out of a whole network of people who had been part of my life
    • tangled in a web of cloth
  5. noun computer network consisting of a collection of internet sites that offer text and graphics and sound and animation resources through the hypertext transfer protocol
    WWW; World Wide Web.
  6. noun a fabric (especially a fabric in the process of being woven)
  7. noun membrane connecting the toes of some aquatic birds and mammals
  8. verb construct or form a web, as if by weaving
    net.

WordNet

Web noun
Etymology
OE. webbe, AS. webba. See Weave.
Definitions
  1. A weaver. Obs. Chaucer.
Web noun
Etymology
OE. web, AS. webb; akin to D. web, webbe, OHG. weppi, G. gewebe, Icel. vefr, Sw. väf, Dan. væv. See Weave.
Definitions
  1. That which is woven; a texture; textile fabric; esp., something woven in a loom.
    Penelope, for her Ulysses' sake, Devised a web her wooers to deceive. Spenser.
    Not web might be woven, not a shuttle thrown, or penalty of exile. Bancroft.
  2. A whole piece of linen cloth as woven.
  3. The texture of very fine thread spun by a spider for catching insects at its prey; a cobweb. "The smallest spider's web." Shak.
  4. Fig.: Tissue; texture; complicated fabrication.
    The somber spirit of our forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a . . . thread of rose-color or gold. Hawthorne.
    Such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures. W. Irving.
  5. (Carriages) A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood.
  6. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
    And Christians slain roll up in webs of lead. Fairfax.
    Specifically: - (a) The blade of a sword. Obs.
    The sword, whereof the web was steel, Pommel rich stone, hilt gold. Fairfax.
    (b) The blade of a saw. (c) The thin, sharp part of a colter. (d) The bit of a key.
  7. (Mach. & Engin.) A plate or thin portion, continuous or perforated, connecting stiffening ribs or flanges, or other parts of an object. Specifically: -- (a) The thin vertical plate or portion connecting the upper and lower flanges of an lower flanges of an iron girder, rolled beam, or railroad rail. (b) A disk or solid construction serving, instead of spokes, for connecting the rim and hub, in some kinds of car wheels, sheaves, etc. (c) The arm of a crank between the shaft and the wrist. (d) The part of a blackmith's anvil between the face and the foot.
  8. (Med.) Pterygium; -- called also webeye. Shak.
  9. (Anat.) The membrane which unites the fingers or toes, either at their bases, as in man, or for a greater part of their length, as in many water birds and amphibians.
  10. (Zoöl.) 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. See Feather.
Web transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Webbed ; present participle & verbal noun Webbing
Definitions
  1. To unite or surround with a web, or as if with a web; to envelop; to entangle.

Webster 1913