spideryadj.
/ˈspʌɪdəri/Cotgrave (1611) has ‘Araignier, spiderie’, but the word otherwise belongs to the 19th century.
1. in combination.1882 Garden 25 Mar. 194/3 A bright spidery-looking flower.
a. Like a spider in appearance or form.
ΚΠ
1837 New Monthly Mag. 51 365 That grotesque race, the Sapajous,..are slender,..long in tail, and spidery in general appearance.
1859 Ld. Lytton Wanderer (ed. 2) 21 Spidery Saturn in his webs of fire.
1881 J. W. Ogle Harveian Orat. 93 That hideous spidery crustacean, the crab.
b. figurative. Entangling like a spider.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > snare, trap, entanglement > [adjective]
insidious1545
trapping1548
masking1567
snaringa1586
entrapping1588
sirenian1600
catching1603
set1603
snarefula1618
insidiary1625
entanglinga1627
ensnaring1630
implicatory1642
trepanning1670
webby1768
spidery1825
catchy1874
trappy1882
tanglefoot1893
1825 S. T. Coleridge Let. 21 Feb. (1971) V. 414 As we advance in years, the World, that spidery Witch, spins it's threads narrower and narrower, still closing in on us.
1875 M. Collins Sweet & Twenty III. ii. vii. 19 Lest he should be picked up by the wily widow or spidery spinster.
2.
a. Of legs or arms: Resembling those of a spider; long and thin.
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the world > life > the body > external parts of body > limb > [adjective] > types of
straight1765
spidery1823
1823 T. De Quincey tr. J. A. Apel Fatal Marksman in Pop. Tales & Romances Northern Nations III. 189 The old woman, stretching her withered spidery arms after the flying girl.
1880 R. Broughton Second Thoughts I. i. i. 6 He is a..fragile young man, slender as any reed, and with legs even more spidery than Jane's.
1896 S. R. Crockett Cleg Kelly vi. 47 Delicate little keys with spidery legs.
b. Suggestive of the appearance of a spider with long and thin legs.
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society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [adjective] > straggling
loose1711
lax1783
sprawly1798
sprawling1826
spidery1862
sprawled1884
the world > space > shape > condition of being long in relation to breadth > slenderness > [adjective] > like a spider's legs
spidery1862
spidering1973
1862 H. Aïdé Carr of Carrlyon II. 228 The marchesa wrote, with characteristic effusion, in her long spidery characters.
1879 R. L. Stevenson Trav. with Donkey 82 A spidery cross on every hill-top.
1894 ‘A. Spinner’ Study in Colour 132 The writing was quite legible, although rather crooked and spidery in places.
c. Like a spider-web in formation; suggestive of a cobweb or cobwebs.Not always clearly separable from 2b.
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the world > space > relative position > fact or condition of being transverse > intersection > [adjective] > like a net or network > like cobweb
cobwebby1743
spidery1860
spider-webby1864
1860 Ecclesiologist 21 284 An ornate kind of German Late-Pointed, very spidery in detail.
a1893 Symonds in H. F. Brown Biogr. (1895) I. ii. 53 I hauled some spidery black weed out of a pool.
1909 Bond & Camm Roodlofts 172 The tracery is spidery.
3. Suggestive of that of a spider, in respect of entanglement, cunning, etc.
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the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > cunning > [adjective]
warec888
craftyOE
hinderyeapc1000
yepec1000
foxc1175
slya1200
hinderc1200
quaint?c1225
wrenchfulc1225
wiltfula1250
wilyc1330
subtle1340
cautelous138.
sleightful1380
subtile1387
enginousa1393
wilfula1400
wilyc1407
sleighty1412
serpentinec1422
ginnousa1425
wittya1425
semyc1440
artificial?a1475
sleight1495
slapea1500
shrewdc1525
craftly1526
foxy1528
gleering?1533
foxish1535
insidious1545
vafrous1548
wily beguile1550
wilely1556
fine1559
todly1571
practic1585
subdolous1588
captious1590
witryff1598
cautel1606
cunninga1616
versute1616
shiftfula1618
artificious1624
insidiary1625
canny1628
lapwing-like1638
pawky?a1640
tricksome1648
callid1656
versutious1660
artful1663
slim1674
dexterous1701
trickish1705
supple1710
slid1719
vulpinary1721
tricksy1766
trickful1775
sneck-drawing1786
tricky1786
louche1819
sneck-drawn1820
slyish1828
vulpine1830
kokum1839
spidery1843
dodgy1861
ladino1863
carney1881
slinky1951
1843 E. Bulwer-Lytton Last of Barons II. vi. i. 202 I have of late, narrowly and keenly watched that spidery web which ye call a Court.
1875 W. Besant & J. Rice With Harp & Crown xviii He had the spidery look as his flabby face shone through the panes.
4. Of the nature of spiders.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Arachnida > [adjective] > of or belonging to Araneida > of nature of spiders
spider-like1655
araneidiform1826
spidery1871
1871 M. E. Braddon Lovels xi There was a particular race of spiders, the biggest specimens of the spidery species it had ever been her horror to encounter.
5. Full of or infested by spiders.
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the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > infestation by noxious creatures > [adjective] > with spiders
spidered1787
spidery1889
1889 M. Stafford How I Spent my Twentieth Year 260 A gabled cottage..in reality rather uncomfortable—stuffy and spidery.
1894 D. C. Murray Making of Novelist 15 I shall never forget the spidery black-painted galleries and staircases.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1823