Spider

sb. Forms: 4 spiþre, 5 spiþer(e, spither, spyther; 5–7 spyder, 6– spider (7 spidar). [app. repr. OE. *spīþre:—*spin-þre, f. spinnan SPIN v. Cf. SPINNER 1.

  In the obscure passage in Saxon Leechd. III. 42 the reading of the MS. is spiden (not spider) wiht.]

  1.  One or other of the arachnids belonging to the insectivorous order Araneidæ, many species of which possess the power of spinning webs in which their prey is caught.

  The cunning, skill and industry of the spider, as well as its power of secreting or emitting poison, are frequently alluded to in literature. The various species or groups of spiders are freq. denoted by some distinguishing word, as bird-catching, crab-, cross-, diadem-, garden-, house-, jumping-, mason-, sedentary, spinning, trap-door-, wall-, wandering spider, etc.: see these words.

1340.  Ayenb., 164. And þe greate niedes of þe wordle him þingþ ase naȝt, and þeruore hise ne prayzeþ naȝt bote ase þe web of þe spiþre.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. liv. (Bodl. MS.). Þis formicalion … is a manere kinde of spiþeres.

c. 1440.  Wycliffite Bible, Job viii. 14. His trist schal be as a web of spiþers [v.rr. yreyns, areyns; earlier version attercoppis].

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 140/2. Eranye, or spyder, or spynnare.

1480.  Caxton, Myrr., II. xv. 101. The spyther or spyncop.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 54. How the vyne of grace … shold be kepte,… that neyther beestes, wormes, ne spiders come therto.

1592.  Greene, Repent. R. Greene, Wks. (Grosart), XII. 180. They with the spider sucke poison out of the most pretious flowers.

1665.  in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 244. The house … being horidly nasty,… the spiders are redy to drope into my mouthe.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 361. Or Secret Moaths are there in Silence fed; Or Spiders in the Vault their snary Webs have spred.

1727–46.  Thomson, Summer, 269. The window … where, gloomily retir’d, The villain spider lives, cunning, and fierce, Mixture abhorr’d!

1782.  Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. VI. 51. In case … any fly or spider should fall into the wine.

1828.  Lytton, Pelham, I. xx. 153. Because rogues are like spiders, and eat each other, when there is nothing else to catch.

1861.  Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. V. ii. 262. In hot climates, Spiders are able to produce … a certain amount of local pain.

1896.  trans. Boas’ Text Bk. Zool., 283. The Spiders may be distinguished from other Arachnida by the separation of the cephalothorax from the abdomen by a deep constriction.

  b.  In allusive use.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., III. ii. 121. Here in her haires The Painter plaies the Spider, and hath wouen A golden mesh t’intrap the hearts of men.

1894.  Mrs. Dyan, Man’s Keeping (1899), 310. There was too much of the alluring spider and giddy fly business in the arrangement.

  c.  Applied to persons as an opprobrious or vituperative term.

1568.  T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 58. For spightfull spiders spare not, For curious carpers care not.

1579.  Lodge, Reply Gosson, 35. From the same flower … whence the Spyder (I mean the ignorant) take their poison.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., I. iii. 242. Why strew’st thou Sugar on that Bottel’d Spider, Whose deadly Web ensnareth thee about?

1602.  Narcissus (1893), 577. Dare you vse mee thus to my face, spidar?

1638.  Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. Concl. 410. If you were ten times more a spider then you are, you could suck no poyson from them.

1798.  Southey, To a Spider, iii. Poet. Wks. 1837, II. 180. Hell’s huge black Spider, for mankind he lays His toils, as thou for flies.

1821–2.  Shelley, Chas. I., IV. 16. Realms … beyond the shot of tyranny, Beyond the webs of that swoln spider.

1898.  ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, i. 3. In such a shop … there is always a human spider lurking in the background, who steals out upon any human fly that may pause to look at the wares.

  † d.  To swallow a spider, to go bankrupt. Obs.

1670.  Ray, Prov., 194. He hath swallowed a spider, i.e. plaid the bankrupt.

  e.  Electrical spider (see quot.).

1842.  Francis, Dict. Arts, Sci., etc. s.v., Electrical Spider, a small ball of pith, cut of the size, and into the form of a spider, suspended by a long filament of silk, and with eight linen thread legs.

  2.  a. Applied, usually with distinguishing term, to other allied species of Arachnida resembling spiders in appearance; esp. the harvest-spider; a spider-mite. See also RED SPIDER, SEA SPIDER.

1665.  Hooke, Microgr., 198. The Carter, Shepherd Spider, or long-legg’d spider.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. x. 215/2. The long legged Spider of the Garden, or Field.

1806.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., VI. II. 473. To this genus [Phalangium] belong those well known insects called long-legged, shepherd, or harvest Spiders.

1818.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (ed. 2), II. 307. Octopods … including the tribes of mites (Acaridæ); spiders (Arancidæ); long-legged spiders (Phalangidæ); and scorpions.

1848.  [see LONG-LEGGED a.].

  b.  (See quot.)

1863.  Couch, Brit. Fishes, II. 43. The fishes of the genus Trachinus … have from an early date obtained for themselves a formidable reputation under the names of Spiders and Sea Dragons.

  c.  A spider-crab.

1853.  T. Bell, Brit. Stalk-eyed Crustacea, 42. Like all the other triangular Crustacea, the fishermen inveterately term it [sc. the spinous spider-crab] ‘spider.’

  d.  A species of artificial fly used in angling; a hackle-fly.

1857.  W. C. Stewart, Pract. Angler, v. 81. Spiders dressed of very soft feathers are more suitable for fishing up than for fishing down.

  3.  A kind of frying-pan having legs and a long handle; also loosely, a frying-pan. Orig. U.S.

1830.  Galt, Lawrie T., III. xii. (1849), 125. A judicious selection of spiders and frying-pans.

1842.  Whittier, in Pickard, Life (1895), I. 278. Like fishes dreaming of the sea, And waking in the spider.

1869.  Mrs. Whitney, We Girls, vi. It is slopping and burning, and putting away with a rinse, that makes kettles and spiders untouchable.

  b.  U.S. A trivet or tripod; a griddle.

1875.  in Knight, Dict. Mech.

  4.  Austr. slang. A drink consisting of lemonade and brandy mixed.

1854.  Argus (Melbourne). They asked us what we would have to drink; we had a spider each.

1859.  K. Cornwallis, New World, I. 300. Shandy-gaff, or spiders,—the latter to clear their throats of flies as they said.

1859.  F. Fowler, Southern Lights, 52.

  5.  Naut. (See quots. and spider-hoop.)

1860.  Nares, Naval Cadet’s Guide, 5. Spiders, an iron outrigger to keep blocks clear of the ship’s side.

c. 1860.  H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 71. What are spiders?
  They are somewhat similar to goose necks, only they are supported by three legs, to enable them to resist strain in different directions; they are used for the after main brace and main sheet.

1874.  Thearle, Naval Archit., 66. An iron forging termed a ‘spider,’ with a square hole or a socket in the top,… is let down over the top of the rudder.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2265/2. Spider,… a hoop around a mast provided with belaying-pins.

  6.  techn. One or other of various parts or pieces of machinery, esp. one consisting of a framework or metal casting with radiating arms or spokes suggestive of the legs of a spider.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2265/2. Spider, a skeleton of radiating spokes; as a sprocket-wheel consisting of spokes on a rotating shaft.

1888.  Bottone, Electr. Instrum. Making (ed. 2), 109. Which pins … serve to bolt the armature firmly to the brass star-wheel, or ‘spider,’ by means of which it is affixed to the shaft.

  b.  (See quot.)

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2265/2. Spider,… the solid interior portion of a piston to which the packing is attached and to whose axis the piston-rod is secured.

  c.  U.S. Coal-mining. (See quot.)

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 230. Spiders. see Drum Rings. [Ibid., 91. Drum-rings. Cast iron wheels, with projections, to which are bolted the staves or laggings forming the surface for the ropes to lap upon.]

  7.  A lightly built cart, trap or phaeton with a high body and disproportionately large and slender wheels. Orig. S. African.

1879.  A. Forbes, in Daily News, 21 Aug., 5/4. I don’t know how often that ‘spider’ and I rolled over together into the mud.

1882.  Mrs. Heckford, Lady Trader in Transvaal, 241. A spanking pair of horses in a spider, brought the sheriff from Pretoria to serve a writ on them.

1895.  Outing, XXVII. 186. A few days later he journeyed again to Brooklyn … and found her spider standing in front of the door.

  8.  In various elliptical uses (see sense 10): a. A spider-table. b. A spider-rest. c. A spider-cell.

  (a)  1848.  [M. W. Savage], Bachelor of the Albany, 70. A nest of spiders for embroidery or chess, an oblong table,… and a round table.

  (b)  1887.  in Cassell’s Encycl. Dict.

1896.  W. J. Ford, in Broadfoot, Billiards, 392. Beginners should be cautioned to watch carefully for foul strokes, especially when the rest or spider is being used.

  (c)  1893.  Brit. Med. Jrnl., 26 Aug., 462. Contemporaneously the nerve-cells shewed signs of degeneration, amongst them were seen the proliferating spiders.

  9.  attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib., as spider-cord, -film, -kind, -silk, -snare, -sting, -thread, tribe.

1863.  Grosart, Small Sins (ed. 2), 35. A scratch like the slenderest *spider-cord.

1835.  Browning, Paracelsus, III. 76. Despising youth’s allurements, and rejecting As *spider-films the shackles I endure.

1753.  Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Solipuga,… a small venomous insect of the *spider-kind.

1861.  Med. Times, 20 April, 421/1. A large black monkey of the spider kind.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Silk, *Spider-Silk. Within a few Years the Secret has been found in France, of procuring and preparing Silk of the Webs of Spiders.

1875.  Encycl. Brit., II. 295/2. With respect to the economic or mercantile value of spider silk.

1796.  Burns, Poem on Life, v. To put us daft; Syne weave, unseen, thy *spider snare, O’ hell’s damned waft.

1852.  Mundy, Antipodes (1857), 179. Thanks to the *spider-sting, I felt too feverish to leave the ship.

1541.  R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 A iij b. A *spyder threde.

1848.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), II. 31. His dislike to be connected in people’s minds, by even the slightest spider-thread, with what he calls ‘George Sandism.’

1868–77.  Watts, Dict. Chem., V. 399. Spider-threads appear to consist essentially of … sericin.

1894.  Baring-Gould, Deserts S. France, I. 1. The traveller … having crossed that spider-thread viaduct of Garabit.

1805.  Bingley, Anim. Biog., III. 603. *Spider Tribe.

  b.  Passing into adj., with the sense ‘like that of a spider; esp. slender, thin; spider-like, spidery.’

1632.  Massinger, Maid of Hon., I. ii. Be not taken with My pretty spider-fingers.

1723.  Fenton, Mariamne, IV. v. His spider-constitution wou’d dissolve In its own venom.

1840.  Thackeray, Shabby-genteel Story, viii. A brown cut-away coat … that fitted tight round a spider waist.

  c.  Appositive, chiefly in allusion to the cunning or wily nature of the spider, as spider-farmer, -saint, -siren.

1678.  Butler, Hud., III. i. 1461. Those Spider-Saints, that hang by Threads Spun out o’ th’ Entrals of their Heads.

1899.  Daily News, 9 May, 8/3. The toils set for him by the treacherous spider-farmer. Ibid., 12 July, 8/2. An Indian opium den, and its spider-siren, inveigling poor flies of men to destruction and death.

  d.  With adjs. forming similative combs., as spider-legged, -limbed, -shanked. Also spider-leggy, -webby adjs.

1787.  ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsem. (1809), 21. The pitiful *spider-legged things of this age fly into a ditch with you, at the sight of a pocket-handkerchief.

1871.  Kingsley, At Last, i. Sand-brush,… through which the spider-legged mangroves rose on stilted roots.

1894.  W. S. Simpson, Mem. (1899), 146. Not an angular spider-legged Frenchified hand, but a clear round legible hand.

1881.  Freeman, in W. R. W. Stephens, Life & Lett. (1895), II. 216. First, W. makes a bold broad cross, somewhat as I might make; M. a *spider-leggy kind of one.

1855.  R. R. Madden, Life C’tess Blessington, I. 367. The … height of its slim, *spider-limbed, powdered footman.

1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., *Spider-shanked, thin legged.

1864.  Builder, 16 April, 274/2. The doors became dingier, the areas and lobbies more *spider-webby.

  10.  Special combs.: † spider-bag, the cocoon spun by the spider for the protection of its eggs; spider-band Naut., a spider-hoop (U.S.); spider-brusher slang, a domestic servant; spider-cake U.S., a cake cooked in a spider pan; spider cancer Path., spider-nævus; † spider-cap, a cap of a spider-like appearance formerly worn by women; spider-cart, = sense 7; † spider-caul, a spider’s web (cf. CAUL sb.¹ 3); in quot. fig., a male flirt; spider-cell, (a) Biol., a bacillus having the appearance of a small spider; (b) Anat., one of the characteristic cells of the neuroglia, having numerous delicate processes resembling the legs of a spider; † spider’s cloth, † spider cob, a spider’s web, a cobweb; spider couching Needlewk., spider-hoop Naut., spider-nævus Path. (see quots.); spider-rest, a billiard rest with legs of sufficient length to allow of its being placed over a ball without touching it; spider-shanks dial., a person having long, thin legs; spider-sheave, a form of sheave or pulley-block somewhat resembling a spider in construction; spider-stitch Needlewk. (see quots.); spider-table, a slightly constructed occasional table with spider-like legs; † spider-wevet, a cobweb (in quot. fig.); spider-wheel, (a) a form of water-wheel; (b) Needlewk. (see spider-stitch); spider-work, work having the characteristics or appearance of a spider’s web.

  A few other special terms, which appear to have little or no currency, are given in recent Dicts.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Silk, The *Spider-Bags are of a Grey Colour when new.

1833.  T. Hook, Love & Pride, Widow, iii. Carefully folded according to the suggestion of the venerable *spider-brusher.

1841.  W. H. Maxwell, Scotland (1855), 11. The English spider-brusher is a gem beyond value.

1869.  Mrs. Whitney, We Girls, v. The flaky *spider-cake, turned just as it blushed golden-tawny over the coals.

1898.  Syd. Soc. Lex., *Spider-cancer, Acne rosacea.

1790.  Wesley, Wks. (1872), VII. 360. Your needless ornaments…—ruffles, necklaces, *spider-cups, ugly, unbecoming bonnets.

1900.  Treves, Tale Field Hosp., xxvii. 97. Left by the roadside … were carts, light *spider-carts,… and … cumbrous impedimenta.

1641.  Brathwait, Eng. Gentlw., 322. Let not then these *Spidercauls delude you, discretion will laugh at them, modesty loath them.

1888.  Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 433. Spherical *‘spider’ cells with clear contents.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 715. At a later stage the spider-cells are transformed into a fibrillar meshwork.

1638.  W. M., García’s Sonne Rogue, 38. The hangings of their chambers are all mourning, with some borders of *spiders-cloth (cobwebs).

a. 1571.  Jewel, Serm. (1609), 231. What profit had ye in your dreames, in your *spider cobbes, in your drosse, in your chaffe?

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 92/2. *Spider Couching.—A Raised Couching. Upon a linen foundation fasten down short pieces of whipcord. Cut these of equal length, and arrange them like the spokes of a wheel or the chief threads of a spider’s web.

1846.  A. Young, Naut. Dict., 291. *Spider-hoop. The hoop going round a mast to secure the shackles to which the futtock-shrouds are attached. Ibid. (1863), 362. The name of spider hoop is also given to a hoop of iron with belaying pins attached to it, or an iron hoop encircling a wooden rim, into which such pins are inserted for belaying brails or braces to.

1868.  Nares, Seamanship (ed. 4), 57. The spider hoop for the topgallant shrouds.

1898.  Syd. Soc. Lex., *Spider-nævus.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 826. A common variety [of nævus] found on the face of children, is a small central red spot with a leash of vessels running to it (spider nævus).

1873.  Bennett & ‘Cavendish,’ Billiards, 28. The heads of cushion and *spider-rests, are generally made of wood.

1828.  Lytton, Pelham, III. xviii. 297. The tallest of the set, who bore the euphonious appellation of *Spider-shanks, politely asked me [etc.].

1903.  Sci. Amer., 31 Jan., 80/1. A couple of *spider-sheaves were sent ashore.

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 62/2. Catherine Wheel … is also known by the name of Spider Wheel or *Spider Stitch, and is chiefly employed to fill up round holes in embroidery on muslin. Ibid., 242/2. Rone.—Also called Wheel and Spider Stitch, and made either with Point Croisé and Point de Toile, or of Point d’Esprit.

1844.  W. H. Maxwell, Scotland, xiv. (1855), 128. Mrs. C— was seated in her easy-chair with a *spider table before her.

1861.  Lever, One of Them, lii. 402. As they placed a little spider-table between them.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., II. 420 b. When you sate knittyng such fleying moats, and *spyderweuett and such stubble.

1868.  Chambers’s Encycl., X. 95/2. The latter are more often made of wrought-iron rods, with a slight axle. This wheel is much lighter…, and is called a suspension or *spider wheel.

c. 1812.  Byron, in Peel, Luddites (1880), vii. 35. By the adoption of one species of frame in particular, one man performed the work of many…. Yet it is to [be] observed that the work thus executed was inferior in quality…. It was called, in the cant of the trade, by the name of *‘Spider work.’

1874.  Queen Lace Bk., I. 5. Darned Netting, (Opus araneum; Spiderwork; Point conté).

1883.  Gd. Words, Dec., 791/2. This orchid is seldom seen without some gossamery spiderwork surrounding it.

  b.  In the names of animals, insects, birds, etc., which bear some resemblance to, or are associated in some way with, spiders, as spider-ant, -diver, -eater, † -fish, -fly, -hunter, -mite, -shell, -tortoise, -wasp, -whelk (see quots.). Also SPIDER-CATCHER, -CRAB, -MONKEY.

1881.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 377. The females of this and other species have an aspect intermediate between that of a Spider and that of an Ant, whence the German entomologists give them the very characteristic name of *‘Spider Ants.’ Ibid., 381. The Spider Ants (Mutillæ).

1827.  Sporting Mag. (N.S.), XX. 39. These birds (colymbus minutus) are very common in the fleets, and are called by the Marshmen *Spider Divers.

1885.  Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 216. Little Grebe,… Spider diver.

1885.  H. O. Forbes, Nat. Wand. E. Archip., III. viii. 233. I obtained an interesting bird, a green species of *Spider-eater.

1608.  Topsell, Serpents, 233. Yet these Serpents are thought to be none other then the Fishes called Aranei, or *Spyder-fishes.

1787.  Best, Angling (ed. 2), 112. The *Spider-Fly. Comes on about the twentieth of April,… and continues on about a fortnight.

1813.  Bingley, Anim. Biog., III. 331. The Hippoboscæ form a connecting link betwixt the two-winged and the apterous insects. By some authors they have been denominated mouches araignées, or spider-flies.

1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 317. The Hippoboscidæ, or spider-flies, are found upon birds and animals.

1856–8.  Horsfield & Moore, Catal. Birds E. India Co., II. 727. Arachnothera magna, the Great *Spider-hunter (Hodgson).

1862.  Jerdon, Birds India, I. 361. Arachnothera pusilla, the Little Spider-hunter.

1876–80.  Shelley, Monograph Nectariniidæ, 358. I retain the Spider-hunters in the present family [Arachnotherinæ].

1870.  H. A. Nicholson, Man. Zool., xxxvii. 269. The Garden-mites (Trombididæ) and *Spider-mites (Ganasidæ) live upon plants.

1879.  E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 525. The Spider Mites are small eyeless creatures, parasitical on bats, birds, reptiles, and insects.

1752.  J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 144. The tuberculose Murex, the Scorpion shell, commonly called the *Spider-shell.

1896.  Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., VI. 385. The spider-shells (Pteroceras), with the claw-like projections from the outer lip. Ibid., V. 64. The last member of this section of the family is the *spider-tortoise (Pyxis arachnoides) of Madagascar.

1816.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (1818), II. 309. The *spider-wasps (Pompilus, F.) walk by starts, as it were, vibrating their wings, at the same time.

1713.  Petiver, Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ, Tab. vi, Tribulus,… *Spider Welk.

  c.  In the names of plants, grasses, etc., as spider grass, ophrys, orchid, orchis, plant (see quots.). Also SPIDERWORT.

1889.  Maiden, Usef. Pl., 98. Panicum divaricatissimum, *Spider Grass.

1796.  Withering, Brit. Pl. (ed. 3), II. 39. Ophrys aranifera, *Spider ophrys.

1889.  Maiden, Usef. Pl., 11. Caladenia, *Spider Orchids.

1785.  Martyn, Lett. Bot., xxvii. (1794), 421. *Spider Orchis is a lower plant.

1839.  Lindley, Sch. Bot., 177. Ophrys araneifera (Spider Orchis).

1882.  Garden, 11 Feb., 89/1. The requirements of such fastidious plants as … the Bee, the Fly, the Spider Orchis … are seldom found in gardens.

1898.  Norris, Austral. Eng., 429. Spider-Orchis, name given in Tasmania to the Orchid Caladenia pulcherrima, F. v. M.

1852.  P. C. Sutherland, Jrnl. Voy. Baffin’s Bay, xix. II. 236. The most beautiful plant that one could see in a whole day’s walking around Assistance Bay, was the *spider plant (Saxifraga flagellaris).

1882.  Friend, Dev. Plant-n., Spider-plant, Saxifraga sarmentosa.

  Hence Spider v. trans., to catch or entrap after the manner of the spider; Spiderdom, the world of spiders; Spiderhood, the existence of spiders.

1891.  Standard, 5 Oct., 2/2. Mr. Gladstone has fooled these people … to the very top of their bent. He has spidered them once more.

1892.  G. Allen, in Longman’s Mag., Aug., 367. The prime blame of spiderhood rests with Nature herself. Ibid (1897), in Strand Mag., Feb., 287/2. The principles of Malthus are unknown in spiderdom.