web

Etymology

From Old English webb, from Proto-Germanic *wabją, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“weave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛb

Noun

web (plural webs)

1. The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.
   

   A spider's web

   The sunlight glistened in the dew on the web.

2. Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which when diagrammed resembles a spider's web.
   • 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Main Street”, in The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales, Boston: Ticknor, Reed,and Fields, published 1852, page 96:

     […] but the blame must rest on the sombre spirit of our forefathers, who wove their web of life with hardly a single thread of rose-color or gold, and not on me, who have a tropic-love of sunshine, and would gladly gild all the world with it, if I knew where to find so much.

   • 1828, Washington Irving, “Birth, Parentage, and Education of Columbus”, in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, volume I, Paris: A. and W. Galignani, page 5:

     The time of his birth, his birth-place, his parentage, are all involved in obscurity ; and such has been the perplexing ingenuity of commentators, that it is difficult to extricate the truth from the web of conjectures with which it is interwoven.

3. Specifically, the World Wide Web (often capitalized Web).

   Let me search the web for that.

4. (baseball) The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing.
   

   A baseball glove, with a web between the thumb and forefinger

   He caught the ball in the web.

5. A latticed or woven structure.

   The gazebo's roof was a web made of thin strips of wood.

   • 1866, George Bancroft, “New Netherland”, in History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume II, 21st edition, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, page 281:

     The colonists were forbidden to manufacture any woollen, or linen, or cotton fabrics ; not a web might be woven, not a shuttle thrown, on penalty of exile.

6. The interconnection between flanges in structural members, increasing the effective lever arm and so the load capacity of the member.
7. (rail transport) The thinner vertical section of a railway rail between the top (head) and bottom (foot) of the rail.
   

   Profile of flat-bottomed and bullhead railway rail showing the web
8. A fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds, or of other animals.
9. 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.
10. (manufacturing) A continuous strip of material carried by rollers during processing.
11. (lithography) A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.
12. (dated) A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood of a carriage.
13. A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
    • 1600, Edward Fairfax, transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne: Or, The Recouerie of Ierusalem, London: Ar. Hatfield, translation of La Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso, book X, stanza 26, page 184:

      […] And there with ſtately pompe by heapes they wend, / And Chriſtians ſlaine rolle vp in webs of lead […]

    1. The blade of a sword.
    • 1600, Edward Fairfax, transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne: Or, The Recouerie of Ierusalem, London: Ar. Hatfield, translation of La Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso, book II, stanza 93, page 38:

      Argant a ſword, whereof the web was ſteele, / Pommell, rich ſtone ; hilts, gold, approu’d by tuch, / With rareſt workmanſhip all forged weele, / The curious art exceld the ſubſtance much.

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

Proper noun

the web

1. Alternative letter-case form of Web: the World Wide Web.

   I found it on the web.

Verb

web (third-person singular simple present webs, present participle webbing, simple past and past participle webbed)

1. (intransitive) To construct or form a web.
2. (transitive) To cover with a web or network.
   • 1853 June 21, R. C. Stone, “A New Insect”, in Simon Brown, editor, The New England Farmer, volume V, Boston: Raynolds & Nourse, page 362:

     The canker worm has no shelter upon the tree, but lies out upon the leaf or branch ; this forms itself a house by webbing the corner of a leaf, into which it retreats on the first appearance of danger […]

   • 1895, “Has Gold Risen?”, in The Forum, volume XVIII, New York: The Forum Publishing Co., page 577:

     In the meantime continents were being ribbed with railways, the atmosphere was being webbed with telegraph wires connecting every important commercial centre […]

3. (transitive) To ensnare or entangle.
4. (transitive) To provide with a web.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To weave.
   • 1511–12, “An Act agaynst deceyptfull making of Wollen Cloth”, in The Statures of the Realm, volume III, London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, published 1963, page 28:

     Item that the Wever whiche shall have the wevyng of eny wollen yerne to be webbed into cloth shall weve werk […]

     Likewise, that the weaver who is to weave any woollen yarn to be woven into cloth shall weave it well.

Anagrams

• Bew, EBW, WBE

Etymology

Borrowed from English web.

Noun

web m (plural webs)

1. web, net, internet
2. Clipping of lloc web.

Noun

web f (plural webs)

1. Clipping of pàgina web.

Etymology

From Old Dutch *web, from Proto-Germanic *wabją, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“weave”).

Pronunciation

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /ʋɛp/

  • Audio

    (file)

• (Limburg) IPA^(key): /wɛp/, /wɛb/
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /wɛp/, /β̞ɛp/
• (Suriname) IPA^(key): /wɛp/

Noun

web n (plural webben, diminutive webje n)

1. web
2. the World Wide Web

Verb

web

1. Imperative singular of weben.
2. (colloquial) First-person singular present of weben.

Etymology

Borrowed from English web.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɛb]

Noun

web (plural webek)

1. (computing) web (Internet)

References

Etymology

Borrowed from English web.

Noun

web m (invariable)

1. (computing) web (Internet)

Alternative forms

• WEB

Etymology

Borrowed from English web.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɰᵝe̞bɯ̟ᵝ]

Noun

web (katakana ウェブ, rōmaji webu)

1. the Internet

   web上で公開された

   webu-jō de kōkai sareta

   made public online

   web番組

   webu bangumi

   online program

Etymology

Borrowed from English web.

Noun

web f (uncountable)

1. the World Wide Web

Etymology

Borrowed from English web.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈweb/, [ˈweβ]; IPA^(key): /ˈɡweb/, [ˈɡweβ]

Noun

web f (uncountable)

1. (computing) web (Internet)
2. (computing) webpage, website

References

• “web” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.