spiders

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.

See all 24 meanings of spider