web, web be

[A. S. webb, web; cogn. with Dut. web, web be; Icel. vefr, gen it. vefjar; Danish From the same root as weave (q. v.).] is said to insert thorns into its nest, as a further protection against marauders. It is a noteworthy fact that the Golden Weaver-bird has begun to build on the telegraph wires by the side of the railway in Natal, owing to the rapid destruction of the willows before advancing civilization ( Nature , May 31, 1888). IMG:content-0753.png:[blocks in formation] "In the hands of an ancient weaver and weavere ."J. H. Blunt: Hist. of Dursley , 222. weav'-ing, *wev-yng, pr. par., a., & s. [WEAVE (1), υ.] A. & B. As pr. par. & particip. adj.: (See the verb.) C. As subst.: The act of one who weaves; the act or proce of producing cloth, ., by the combination of flexible fibres. It is an art of very remote IMG:content-0754.png:[blocks in formation] *(2) The blade of a sword. "The brittle web of that rich sword, he thought Was broke through hardne e of the counties sheeld." Fairefax : Godfrey of Boulogne , vii. 4. (3) The plate, or its equivalent, in a beam or girder which connects the upper and lower flat plates or laterally extending portions. "This interval was strengthened by horizontal webs of iron plates." -London Daily Telegraph . (4) The corresponding portion between the tread and foot of a railway-rail. (5) That portion of a wheel, as of a railway-carriage, which extends between the hub and the rim, occupying the space where spokes would be in an ordinary wheel. (6) The blade of a saw. (7) In vehicles, a stout band of textile fabric, used as straps to limit the extension of the hood. (8) That portion of an ordinary anvil which is of reduced size below the head, and from which the divergent horns proceed. (9) The solid portion of the bit of a key. (10) The arm of a crank connecting the shaft and the wrist. (11) The thin sharp part of the coulter of a plow. II. Technically: 1. Entom .: The term web is sometimes used of the silky sheath formed by various caterpillars within the rolled leaves constructed for their habitation and defense, the cocoon of the silkworm, . 2. Ornith .: A membrane in the Swimming Birds, uniting the three anterior toes, and in one order (the Steganopodes) extending also along the side of the foot to the great tome audi In rudimentary form 3. Zool.: Chiefly in the sense I.3. All spiders do not weave webs, and those which do vary in the more or le regular form of the web produced. Two of the finest weavers are the Garden Spider, Epeira diadem a , the web of which is of a fine geometric form, and the Common House Spider, Aranea domestic a . [SPINNERET.] Used also of the membranes between the digits of some animals which are specially adapted for swimming, or are amphibious, as the Ornithorhynchus, the Otter, some breeds of Dogs, the Crocodiles, and the Water-liz IMG:content-0755.png:[graphic] ards. Web and pin, Pin and web : The same as PIN (1), s., 1. 9.