different between intricate vs cobweb

English

Etymology 1

From Latin intricatus, past participle of intricare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n.t??.k?t/

Adjective

intricate (comparative more intricate, superlative most intricate)

1. Having a great deal of fine detail or complexity.
   • As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”

Translations

Etymology 2

As the adjective; or by analogy with extricate

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n.t??.ke?t/

Verb

intricate (third-person singular simple present intricates, present participle intricating, simple past and past participle intricated)

1. (intransitive) To become enmeshed or entangled.
   • 1864 October 18, J.E. Freund, “How to Avoid the Use of Lint”, letter to the editor, in The New York Times (1864 October 23):

     […] washes off easily, without sticking or intricating into the wound.

2. (transitive) To enmesh or entangle: to cause to intricate.
   • 1994 December 12, William Safire, “Avoid Dunkirk II” (essay), in The New York Times:

     But the British and French won't hear of that; they want to get their troops extricated and our ground troops intricated.

References

• intricate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• acitretin, triacetin, triactine

Italian

Adjective

intricate f pl

1. feminine plural of intricato

Verb

intricate

1. second-person plural present of intricare
2. second-person plural imperative of intricare
3. feminine plural past participle of intricare

Anagrams

• recintati
• trinciate

Latin

Verb

intr?c?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of intr?c?

English

Etymology

From Middle English copweb, coppeweb, equivalent to cop (“spider”) +? web. Compare Middle Dutch kopwebbe, German Low German Kobbenwebbe (Westphalian).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?bw?b/
• Hyphenation: cob?web

Noun

cobweb (plural cobwebs)

1. A spiderweb, or the remains of one, especially an asymmetrical one that is woven with an irregular pattern of threads.
   • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter X. "Provincetown", page 200.

     […] there was stretched across his gateway a circular cobweb of the largest kind and quite entire. This looked so ominous that I actually turned aside and went in the back way.
2. One of its filaments; gossamer.
3. (figuratively) Something thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; valueless remainder.
   • c. 1579, Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy

     The dust and cobwebs of that uncivil age.
4. An intricate plot to catch the unwary.

   • Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools.

5. (Internet slang, rare) A web page that either has not been updated for a long time, or that is rarely visited.
6. The European spotted flycatcher, Muscicapa striata.
7. (informal, usually in the plural) fuzzy inexact memories.
   • 2008 Burlan Eugene Ellison The Ebony Coffin: A Jim Kirkwood Novel page 98

     I washed my face, trying to get the cobwebs of hard sex and an alcohol-induced sleep out of my head

   • 2012 Stanley M. Bierman Napoleon's Penis: Plus Other Engaging and Outrageous Tales page 16

     Veyz mir, meaning something like “Oh . . . my!,” was a Yiddish expression that I had not employed for a long, long time. Yet in the cobwebs of my memory, that expression was still lurking inside. How interesting!

Hypernyms

• web

Derived terms

Translations