Cobwebs

[kob-web] /ˈkɒbˌwɛb/

noun
1.
a web spun by a spider to entrap its prey.
2.
a single thread spun by a spider.
3.
something resembling a cobweb; anything finespun, flimsy, or insubstantial.
4.
a network of plot or intrigue; an insidious snare.
5.
cobwebs, confusion, indistinctness, or lack of order:
I’m so tired my head is full of cobwebs.
verb (used with object), cobwebbed, cobwebbing.
6.
to cover with or as with cobwebs:
Spiders cobwebbed the cellar.
7.
to confuse or muddle:
Drunkenness cobwebbed his mind.
/ˈkɒbˌwɛbz/
plural noun
1.
mustiness, confusion, or obscurity
2.
(informal) stickiness of the eyelids experienced upon first awakening
/ˈkɒbˌwɛb/
noun
1.
a web spun by certain spiders, esp those of the family Theridiidae, often found in the corners of disused rooms
2.
a single thread of such a web
3.
something like a cobweb, as in its flimsiness or ability to trap
n.

early 14c., coppewebbe; the first element is Old English -coppe, in atorcoppe “spider,” literally “poison-head” (see attercop). Spelling with -b- is from 16c., perhaps from cob. Cob as a stand-alone for “a spider” was an old word nearly dead even in dialects when J.R.R. Tolkien used it in “The Hobbit” (1937).