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web

1. That which is woven; a texture; textile fabric; especially, 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.

4. Tissue; texture; complicated fabrication. The somber spirit of our forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a . . . Thread of rose-colour 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. 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: The blade of a sword. The sword, whereof the web was steel, pommel rich stone, hilt gold. (Fairfax)

The blade of a saw. The thin, sharp part of a colter. The bit of a key.

7. (Science: machinery) A plate or thin portion, continuous or perforated, connecting stiffening ribs or flanges, or other parts of an object. Specifically:

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.

A disk or solid construction serving, instead of spokes, for connecting the rim and hub, in some kinds of car wheels, sheaves, etc. The arm of a crank between the shaft and the wrist. The part of a blackmith's anvil between the face and the foot.

8. (Science: ophthalmology) pterygium; called also webeye.

9. (Science: anatomy, ornithology) 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. (Science: zoology) 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.

(Science: medicine) pin and web, the system of braces connecting the flanges of a lattice girder, post, or the like.

Origin: OE. Web, AS. Webb; akin to D. Web, webbe, OHG. Weppi, G. Gewebe, Icel. Vefr, Sw. Vaf, Dan. Vaev. See Weave.