Link Centre Dictionary

spider

spi·der

UK/ˈspaɪ̯də/ US/ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/ common slang uk us

noun

1.

predatory arachnid that usually has silk-spinning organs at the back end of the body; they spin silk to make cocoons for eggs or traps for prey

2.

a computer program that prowls the internet looking for publicly accessible resources that can be added to a database; the database can then be searched with a search engine

Synonyms
3.

Origin

Inherited 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. Compare typologically Proto-Slavic *mězgyrь (whence Russian мизги́рь (mizgírʹ)) (akin to Latvian mežģīt), Turkish örümcek (akin to örmek).

Phrases

  • ant spider
  • Arctic wolf spider
  • armed spider
  • assassin spider
  • baboon spider
  • banana spider
  • barking spider
  • bear spider

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.