A cobweb is a dusty spider's web. Learn how to say it, how to use it, and why the word hides an old word for spider.
A cobweb is a fine, dusty web, usually in a corner of a room that nobody has cleaned for a while. You may also see one in a garden shed or an old garage.
Cobwebs are thin and easy to miss, but they can cover a whole room in a closed-up house. Spiders build them, and they often look grey because of the dust that settles on them.
KOB-web
The stress is on the first part, and both parts are short and clear.
The attic had been locked for years, and every corner was full of cobwebs.
Before the guests arrived, Dad took a broom to the cobwebs on the ceiling.
A few cobwebs hung from the garden shed, so we knew nobody had been inside for months.
Cobweb is a countable noun, so you can say a cobweb or cobwebs. It is used for real webs, and for the feeling of being dusty or out of use.
A useful idiom: blow the cobwebs away means to wake up your mind or get rid of tiredness, the way you would air out a stuffy room. A walk in the fresh air will blow the cobwebs away.
Break the word in two. Cob comes from an old English word for spider, and web is the web. So a cobweb is literally a spider's web. The first part is hard to spot today, because cob survives mainly inside this word.
Let's see what's been spun.
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