Word.ws English Dictionary

spider

UK/ˈspaɪ̯də//ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/

spider noun: any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.

spider: any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to...
Image: Termininja Marshal Hedin ( File:Aptostichus ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

spider (countable and uncountable, plural spiders)

  1. Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.
    • 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.1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 23
    Synonyms:
    attercop, cop
  2. (Internet) A program which follows links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
    • Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. The first is the spider, also called the crawler, which visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site.2008, Alex Michael, Ben Salter, Marketing Through Search Optimization, Routledge, →ISBN, page xii
    Synonyms:
    crawler
  3. (Australia, 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.
  4. (Australia, New Zealand, obsolete) An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer.
  5. (slang) A spindly person.
  6. (slang) A man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar.
  7. 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.
    Synonyms:
    bridge
  8. (UK, US, dialectal, historical) A cast-iron frying pan with three legs, once common in open-hearth cookery.
    • 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.1846, Mary Hooker Cornelius, The Young Housekeeper's Friend, page 146, recipe 28 “To fry salt pork”
    • In spider pan or deep skillet set over hot coals, quickly fry a few at a time in deep lard until brown.2005, Marty Davidson, Grandma Grace's Southern Favorites, recipe for “strawberry coconuts”, Rutledge Hill Press, page 193
  9. 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
    • 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).1996, City and Guilds of London Institute, Food preparation and cooking. Cookery units. Student guide., Stanley Thornes, unit 2ND5, element 2, page 157
    • 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.2008, Anna Kasabian, David Kasabian, The Wild Fish Cookbook, Creative Publishing International, →ISBN, page 84
  10. A part of a crank, to which the chainrings are attached.
  11. (slang, uncountable) Heroin.
  12. Part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.
Show 8 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. 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.
  2. (England, fly fishing) A soft-hackle fly.
  3. The network of wires separating the areas of a dartboard.
  4. A spider graph or spider tree.
  5. (obsolete) A type of light phaeton.
    • 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.1901 July 19, “To Australia and Back”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 10, page 298
  6. A support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.
    • The spider is very useful for shooting in the studio or on locations with smooth floors where tripod legs tend to slide.1927, H. Mario Raimondo Souto, The Technique of the Motion Picture Camera, page 64
  7. (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.
  8. A bit for turning fasteners with 8-pointed heads.
    Synonyms:
    double square, 8-point star

Verb

spider (third-person singular simple present spiders, present participle spidering, simple past and past participle spidered)

  1. (intransitive) To move like a spider.
    • A year later she returned to El Cap and spidered up the wall again — this time in 23 hours.2001, Life Books, Life: The Greatest Adventures of All Time, Time Home Entertainment Incorporated, →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.2009, Michael Crummey, Galore: A novel, Doubleday Canada, →ISBN
  2. (intransitive) To cover a surface like a cobweb.
    • 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, Jenna Burtenshaw, Wintercraft: Blackwatch, Hachette UK, →ISBN
    • Large cracks spidered across the mask's glass where the nozzle had hit.2011, MJ Ware, Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb, MJA Ware, →ISBN
  3. (Internet) To follow links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
    • The online dictionary is regularly spidered by search engines.

Proper noun capitalized: Spider

Spider

  1. The 29th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.

spider meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

spider in Hindi

arthropod
मकड़ी makṛī, मकड़ा makṛā

spider in Tamil

arthropod
சிலந்தி cilanti

spider in Marathi

arthropod
कोळी koḷī

spider in Urdu

arthropod
مَکْڑی makṛī, مَکْڑا makṛā
More languagesFewer languages
spider in Bengali
মাকড়সা makṛośa, ঊর্ণনাভ urnonabh, উর্ণনাভ urnonabh, লূতা luta
spider in Telugu
సాలీడు sālīḍu
spider in Malayalam
എട്ടുകാലി eṭṭukāli, ചിലന്തി cilanti, ൡതം l̥̄taṁ
spider in Kannada
ಸಾಲಿಗ sāliga, ಜೇಡರಹುಳು jēḍarahuḷu
spider in Punjabi
ਮੱਕਡ਼ੀ
spider in Gujarati
કરોળિયો karoḷiyo, ઉર્ણનાભ urṇanābh
spider in Odia
ମକ୍ରୀ makri
spider in Sanskrit
लूता lūtā, तन्तुनाभ tantunābha, मूषिका mūṣikā, उर्णनाभ urṇanābha
spider in Sinhala
මකුළුවා makuḷuwā
spider in Assamese
মকৰা mokora
spider in Nepali
माकुरो mākuro
spider in Pashto
غڼه ǧëṇa
spider in Tagalog
gagambá, álalawa, pitik
spider in Arabic
عَنْكَبُوت ʕankabūt, شَبَث šabaṯ, عنكبوت ʕankabūt, ابو شبت abu šabat
spider in Malay
labah-labah
spider in Indonesian
labah, laba-laba
spider in Persian
تنند tanand, جولَا jōlā, جولَاه jōlāh, عَنْکَبوت ankabut
spider in Thai
แมงมุม mɛɛng-mum
spider in Vietnamese
nhện, nhền nhện
spider in Myanmar
ပင့်ကူ pang.ku

Examples of spider in a sentence

  • Briefly he considered letting go to glide along in Radu's wake as the assassin spidered up the wall.2012, David Gross, Lord of Stormweather: Sembia: Gateway to the Realms, Wizards of the Coast, →ISBN:
  • Moss spidered across the stone, fresh green.2013, Mary Gentle, Rats and Gargoyles, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with spider

Synonyms of spider

20 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of spider

Forms of spider

Noun
pluralspiders
Verb
third-person singular presentspiders
present participlespidering
past participlespidered
pastspidered

Plural of spider: spiders

Origin of spider

Inherited from Middle English spithre, spider, 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).

Words formed from spider

Phrases with spider

129 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with spider

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spider

What does spider mean?
Spider means any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.
What is spider in Hindi?
Spider in Hindi is मकड़ी (makṛī), मकड़ा (makṛā). See Spider meaning in Hindi.
How do you use spider in a sentence?
Briefly he considered letting go to glide along in Radu's wake as the assassin spidered up the wall.
What part of speech is spider?
Spider can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce spider?
Spider is pronounced /ˈspaɪ̯də/ (UK).
What is the plural of spider?
The plural of spider is spiders.

Words near spider in the dictionary

  1. spicy white
  2. spicy-hot
  3. spide
  4. Spidell
  5. Spidells
  6. spider
  7. spider beetle
  8. spider beetles
  9. spider box
  10. spider boxes
  11. spider chart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spider (page history and authors); Spider (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-spider.ogg, en-au-spider.ogg.

Cite this entry: “spider.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spider. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.