5  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Spider  \Spi"der\,  n.[OE.  spi[thorn]re,  fr  AS  spinnan  to  spin; 
  --  so  named  from  spinning  its  web;  cf  D.  spin  a  spider,  G. 
  spinne,  Sw  spindel.  Seee  {Spin}.] 
  1.  (Zo["o]l.)  Any  one  of  numerous  species  of  arachnids 
  comprising  the  order  Araneina.  Spiders  have  the  mandibles 
  converted  into  poison  fangs,  or  falcers.  The  abdomen  is 
  large  and  not  segmented,  with  two  or  three  pairs  of 
  spinnerets  near  the  end  by  means  of  which  they  spin 
  threads  of  silk  to  form  cocoons,  or  nests,  to  protect 
  their  eggs  and  young.  Many  species  spin  also  complex  webs 
  to  entrap  the  insects  upon  which  they  prey.  The  eyes  are 
  usually  eight  in  number  (rarely  six),  and  are  situated  on 
  the  back  of  the  cephalothorax.  See  Illust.  under 
  {Araneina}. 
 
  Note:  Spiders  are  divided  into  two  principal  groups:  the 
  Dipneumona,  having  two  lungs:  and  the  Tetrapneumona, 
  having  four  lungs.  See  {Mygale}.  The  former  group 
  includes  several  tribes;  as  the  jumping  spiders  (see 
  {Saltigrad[ae]}),  the  wolf  spiders,  or  {Citigrad[ae]} 
  (see  under  {Wolf}),  the  crab  spiders,  or 
  {Laterigrad[ae]}  (see  under  {Crab}),  the  garden,  or 
  geometric,  spiders,  or  {Orbitell[ae]}  (see  under 
  {Geometrical},  and  {Garden}),  and  others  See  {Bird 
  spider},  under  {Bird},  {Grass  spider},  under  {Grass}, 
  {House  spider},  under  {House},  {Silk  spider},  under 
  {Silk}. 
 
  2.  (Zo["o]l.)  Any  one  of  various  other  arachnids  resembling 
  the  true  spiders,  especially  certain  mites,  as  the  red 
  spider  (see  under  {Red}). 
 
  3.  An  iron  pan  with  a  long  handle,  used  as  a  kitchen  utensil 
  in  frying  food.  Originally,  it  had  long  legs,  and  was  used 
  over  coals  on  the  hearth. 
 
  4.  A  trevet  to  support  pans  or  pots  over  a  fire. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  spider 
  n  1:  predatory  arachnid  that  usually  has  silk-spinning  organs  at 
  the  back  end  of  the  body;  they  spin  silk  to  make  cocoons 
  for  eggs  or  traps  for  prey 
  2:  a  skillet  made  of  cast  iron 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  spider  The  Web-walking  part  of  a  search  engine  that  collects 
  pages  for  indexing  in  the  search  engine's  database.  Also  called  a  {bot}. 
  The  best-known  spider  is  Scooter,  the  web-walker  for  the  Alta  Vista 
  search  engine. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  spider 
 
    (Or  "robot",  "crawler")  A  program  that 
  automatically  explores  the  {World-Wide  Web}  by  retrieving  a 
  document  and  recursively  retrieving  some  or  all  the  documents 
  that  are  referenced  in  it  This  is  in  contrast  with  a  normal 
  {web  browser}  operated  by  a  human  that  doesn't  automatically 
  follow  links  other  than  {inline  images}  and  {URL  redirection}. 
 
  The  algorithm  used  to  pick  which  references  to  follow  strongly 
  depends  on  the  program's  purpose.  {Index}-building  spiders 
  usually  retrieve  a  significant  proportion  of  the  references. 
  The  other  extreme  is  spiders  that  try  to  validate  the 
  references  in  a  set  of  documents;  these  usually  do  not 
  retrieve  any  of  the  links  apart  from  redirections. 
 
  The  {standard  for  robot  exclusion}  is  designed  to  avoid  some 
  problems  with  spiders. 
 
  Early  examples  are  {Lycos},  {WebCrawler},  and  {Yahoo!}. 
 
  {Home 
  (http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/robots.html)}. 
 
  (1999-08-26) 
 
 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Spider 
  The  trust  of  the  hypocrite  is  compared  to  the  spider's  web  or 
  house  (Job  8:14).  It  is  said  of  the  wicked  by  Isaiah  that  they 
  "weave  the  spider's  web"  (59:5),  i.e.,  their  works  and  designs 
  are  like  the  spider's  web,  vain  and  useless.  The  Hebrew  word 
  here  used  is  _'akkabish_,  "a  swift  weaver." 
 
  In  Prov.  30:28  a  different  Hebrew  word  semamith  is  used  It 
  is  rendered  in  the  Vulgate  by  stellio,  and  in  the  Revised 
  Version  by  "lizard."  It  may  however,  represent  the  spider,  of 
  which  there  are  it  is  said  about  seven  hundred  species  in 
  Palestine. 
 

browse words by letter
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
or search   thesauri dictionary search words