SPIDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spider mean? 

• SPIDER (noun)
  The noun SPIDER has 3 senses:

1. predatory arachnid with eight legs, two poison fangs, two feelers, and usually two 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

3. a skillet made of cast iron

  Familiarity information: SPIDER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPIDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Predatory arachnid with eight legs, two poison fangs, two feelers, and usually two silk-spinning organs at the back end of the body; they spin silk to make cocoons for eggs or traps for prey

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("spider" is a kind of...):

arachnid; arachnoid (air-breathing arthropods characterized by simple eyes and four pairs of legs)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spider"):

orb-weaving spider (a spider that spins a circular (or near circular) web)

Argiope aurantia; black and gold garden spider (a widely distributed North American garden spider)

Araneus cavaticus; barn spider (an orange and tan spider with darkly banded legs that spins an orb web daily)

Aranea diademata; garden spider (a spider common in European gardens)

comb-footed spider; theridiid (spider having a comb-like row of bristles on each hind foot)

black widow; Latrodectus mactans (venomous New World spider; the female is black with an hourglass-shaped red mark on the underside of the abdomen)

tarantula (large hairy tropical spider with fangs that can inflict painful but not highly venomous bites)

hunting spider; wolf spider (ground spider that hunts its prey instead of using a web)

trap-door spider (American spider that constructs a silk-lined nest with a hinged lid)

Holonyms ("spider" is a member of...):

Araneae; Araneida; order Araneae; order Araneida (spiders)

Derivation:

spidery (relating to or resembling a member of the class Arachnida)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

spider; wanderer

Hypernyms ("spider" is a kind of...):

computer program; computer programme; program; programme ((computer science) a sequence of instructions that a computer can interpret and execute)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A skillet made of cast iron

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("spider" is a kind of...):

frying pan; frypan; skillet (a pan used for frying foods)

 Context examples 

He gave many flies to one spider and many spiders to one bird, and then wanted a cat to eat the many birds.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Where is this great spider of yours now?" asked the Lion.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

There he called his wife, and showed me to her; but she screamed and ran back, as women in England do at the sight of a toad or a spider.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Outlined against the clear blue of the sky, he had the appearance of an enormous spider crawling along the tracery of its web.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It is characterized by the presence of neoplastic large cells with clear cytoplasm and spider cells.

(Adult Rhabdomyoma, NCI Thesaurus)

He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Thank you, I prefer spiders," she replied, fishing up two unwary little ones who had gone to a creamy death.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A fungus genetically engineered to produce spider toxin can crush populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes, according to a study hailed as a breakthrough by international scientists battling to combat the disease.

(Genetically modified fungus hailed as malaria breakthrough, SciDev.Net)

In one, sailors were singing at their work, in another there were men aloft, high over my head, hanging to threads that seemed no thicker than a spider's.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A cardiac rhabdomyoma characterized by the presence of neoplastic large striated muscle cells with clear cytoplasm and spider cells.

(Conventional Cardiac Rhabdomyoma, NCI Thesaurus)