spider
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Middle English spiþre, spydyr, spider, spiþer, from Old English spīþra (“spider”), from Proto-West Germanic *spinþrijō, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”). Mostly displaced attercop (“spider, unpleasant person”), now a dialectal term.
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Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: spīʹdə, IPA(key): /ˈspaɪ̯də/
- (General American) enPR: spīʹdər, IPA(key): /ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/
- (New England, Inland Northern American, Canada) enPR: spīʹdər, IPA(key): [ˈspʌɪ̯ɾə(ɹ)]
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Homophone: Spyder
- Rhymes: -aɪdə(ɹ)
Noun
spider (countable and uncountable, plural spiders)
- Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.
- 1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 23:
- Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating of curds and whey; There came a little spider, Who sat down beside her, And frighted Miss Muffet away.
- (Internet) A program which follows links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
- Synonym: crawler
- (chiefly Australia and New Zealand) A float (drink) made by mixing ice-cream and a soda or fizzy drink (such as lemonade).
- 2002, Katharine Gasparini, Cranberry and vanilla ice cream spider, recipe in Cool Food, page 339.
- (Australia, New Zealand, obsolete) An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer.
- (slang) A spindly person.
- (slang) A man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar.
- (snooker, billiards) A stick with a convex arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of reach at normal extension.
- Synonym: bridge
- (cooking, US, UK, chiefly historical and now dialectal) A cast-iron frying pan with three legs, once common in open-hearth cookery.
- 1846, Mary Hooker Cornelius, The Young Housekeeper's Friend, page 146, recipe 28 “To fry salt pork”:
- Cut slices and lay them in cold water in the spider; boil them up two or three minutes, then pour off the water and set the spider again on the coals and brown the slices on each side.
- 2005, Marty Davidson, Grandma Grace's Southern Favorites, recipe for “strawberry coconuts”, Rutledge Hill Press, →ISBN, page 193:
- In spider pan or deep skillet set over hot coals, quickly fry a few at a time in deep lard until brown.
- 2008, Corona Club (San Francisco, California), Corona Club Cook Book, page 202,
- Melt ½ the dry sugar in the spider, stirring with knife until all is melted.
- 1846, Mary Hooker Cornelius, The Young Housekeeper's Friend, page 146, recipe 28 “To fry salt pork”:
- (cooking) Implement for moving food in and out of hot oil for deep frying, with a circular metal mesh attached to a long handle; a spider skimmer
- 1996, City and Guilds of London Institute, Food preparation and cooking. Cookery units. Student guide., Stanley Thornes, →ISBN, unit 2ND5, element 2, page 157:
- If you are deep-frying your falafel, use a spider or basket to place them gently into the hot oil, which should be preheated to a temperature of 175°C (330°F).
- 2008, Anna Kasabian, David Kasabian, The Wild Fish Cookbook, Creative Publishing International, →ISBN, page 84:
- Consider investing in a frying basket or a spider for small amounts of fish. A spider looks like a metal web and has a long handle and can lower and raise fish from the hot oil.
- 1996, City and Guilds of London Institute, Food preparation and cooking. Cookery units. Student guide., Stanley Thornes, →ISBN, unit 2ND5, element 2, page 157:
- (cycling) A part of a crank, to which the chainrings are attached.
- (slang, uncountable) Heroin.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:heroin
- (music) Part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.
- A skeleton or frame with radiating arms or members, often connected by crosspieces, such as a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; or a frame for strengthening a core or mould for a casting.
- (fly fishing, England) A soft-hackle fly.
- (sports) The network of wires separating the areas of a dartboard.
- (mathematics) A spider graph or spider tree.
- (obsolete) A type of light phaeton.
- 1901 July 19, “To Australia and Back”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 10, page 298:
- I am also disappointed with the horses, having hardly seen a decent pair yet, while the traps and horses do not look smart and well groomed. There are a great many American spiders used. Have not seen a bullock in the yoke yet.
- (photography) A support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.
- 1927, H. Mario Raimondo Souto, The Technique of the Motion Picture Camera, page 64:
- The spider is very useful for shooting in the studio or on locations with smooth floors where tripod legs tend to slide.
- (bowls) A competition in which several participants are spread evenly around the edges of the green, who all make one bowl towards the central jack at the same time; the winner being the person whose bowl ends up closest to the jack.
Derived terms
- araneomorph funnel-web spider
- Arctic wolf spider
- armed spider (Phoneutria spp.)
- assassin spider (Palpimanoidea spp., esp. Archaeidae spp.)
- baboon spider
- banana spider
- barking spider
- bear spider
- bird dropping spider
- bird spider
- black and gold garden spider
- black house spider
- box kite spider
- Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria spp.)
- bridge spider
- brown recluse spider
- camel spider
- cardinal spider
- cellar spider
- Chinese spider
- cobweb spider
- coconut spider
- comb-footed spider
- crab spider
- cross spider
- daddy longlegs spider
- daddy long-legs spider
- Desertas wolf spider
- diadem spider
- diving bell spider
- drider
- dwarf cobweb weaver spider
- early spider orchid
- European garden spider
- European spider crab
- extended spider
- false violin spider
- flattie spider
- funnel-web spider
- giant house spider
- goblin spider
- gossamer spider
- grass crab spider
- green lynx spider
- ground spider
- hairy spider orchid
- harvest spider
- hobo spider
- house spider
- hunting spider
- huntsman spider
- ironcaps spider orchid
- Jorō spider
- jumping spider
- ladybird spider
- leaf-curling spider
- liocranid sac spider
- long-jawed spider
- lynx spider
- money spider
- mouse spider
- my spider sense is tingling
- Nosferatu spider
- nursery web spider
- orb spider
- orb-web spider
- peacock jumping spider
- peacock parachute spider
- peacock spider
- pelican spider (Archaeidae spp.)
- pirate spider
- Port Macquarie funnel-web spider
- pumpkin spider
- purseweb spider
- rabid wolf spider
- recluse spider
- red-legged golden orb-weaver spider
- red spider (Tetranychidae spp.)
- respider
- rock spider
- rockspider
- rolling spider
- scorpion spider
- seaspider
- sea spider
- sea-spider
- spider beetle
- spider box
- spider-catcher
- spider cloth
- spider crab
- spider diagram
- spider diver
- spiderdom
- spideresque
- spideress
- spideret
- spider-fear
- spider fear
- spider flower (Grevillea spp.)
- spider fly
- spider gag
- spider goat
- spidergram
- spider hole
- spiderhunter
- spider-hunting wasp
- spider in the web doctrine
- spiderish
- spiderkind
- spiderless
- spiderlet
- spider lightning
- spiderlike
- spider lily
- spiderling
- spiderly
- spiderman
- spider mill
- spider mite (Tetranychidae spp.)
- spider monkey
- spider naevus
- spiderous
- spider-panic
- spiderphobia
- spider plant
- spider roll
- spider-sense
- spider sense
- spider shell
- spidership
- spider solitaire
- spider spanner
- spider stitch
- spider strainer
- spider strap
- spider table
- spider vein
- spider veins
- spider wasp
- spider-web
- spiderweb
- spider web
- spider-webby
- spider wheel
- spiderwisp (Gynandropsis gynandra)
- spiderwood (Dracophyllum latifolium)
- spiderwork
- spiderwort
- spider wrap
- spidery
- Spidey
- spidroin
- spinous spider crab
- spiny spider crab
- spitting spider
- sun spider
- Sydney funnel-web spider
- tangled nest spider
- Tasmanian cave spider
- trapdoor spider
- triangle spider
- turret spider
- velvet spider
- violin spider
- wafer trapdoor spider
- wandering spider
- wasp spider
- water spider
- Web spider
- whip spider
- wolf spider
- woodlouse spider
- writing spider
- zebra spider
- zipper spider
Related terms
Translations
arthropod
|
computer program
|
drink
Verb
spider (third-person singular simple present spiders, present participle spidering, simple past and past participle spidered)
- (intransitive) To move like a spider.
- 2001, Life Books, Life: The Greatest Adventures of All Time, Time Home Entertainment Incorporated, →ISBN:
- A year later she returned to El Cap and spidered up the wall again — this time in 23 hours.
- 2009, Michael Crummey, Galore: A novel, Doubleday Canada, →ISBN:
- They saved the hall though the facing and part of the roof had to be torn out and replaced, men spidered over the building to repair it before Coaker's arrival.
- 2012, David Gross, Lord of Stormweather: Sembia: Gateway to the Realms, Wizards of the Coast, →ISBN:
- Briefly he considered letting go to glide along in Radu's wake as the assassin spidered up the wall.
- (intransitive) To cover a surface like a cobweb.
- 2011, Jenna Burtenshaw, Wintercraft: Blackwatch, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
- High walls surrounded it on all sides, each one covered with the skeletal stems of climbing plants that spidered across the stones, and the ground was cobbled between patches of frozen grass.
- 2011, MJ Ware, Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb, MJA Ware, →ISBN:
- Large cracks spidered across the mask's glass where the nozzle had hit.
- 2013, Mary Gentle, Rats and Gargoyles, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
- Moss spidered across the stone, fresh green. Seaweed sprouted bright yellows and ochres between the vast webs of fingers.
- (Internet, of a computer program) To follow links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
- The online dictionary is regularly spidered by search engines.
See also
Further reading
spider on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - spider (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
Noun
spider m (plural spiders)
Further reading
- “spider”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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