GOSSAMER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gossamer mean? 

• GOSSAMER (noun)
  The noun GOSSAMER has 2 senses:

1. a gauze fabric with an extremely fine texture

2. filaments from a web that was spun by a spider

  Familiarity information: GOSSAMER used as a noun is rare.

• GOSSAMER (adjective)
  The adjective GOSSAMER has 2 senses:

1. characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy

2. so thin as to transmit light

  Familiarity information: GOSSAMER used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GOSSAMER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A gauze fabric with an extremely fine texture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("gossamer" is a kind of...):

gauze; netting; veiling (a net of transparent fabric with a loose open weave)

Derivation:

gossamer (characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Filaments from a web that was spun by a spider

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

cobweb; gossamer

Hypernyms ("gossamer" is a kind of...):

fibril; filament; strand (a very slender natural or synthetic fiber)

Derivation:

gossamer (characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy)

• GOSSAMER (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy

Synonyms:

ethereal; gossamer

Context example:

gossamer shading through his playing

Similar:

delicate (exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury)

Derivation:

gossamer (filaments from a web that was spun by a spider)

gossamer (a gauze fabric with an extremely fine texture)

Sense 2

Meaning:

So thin as to transmit light

Synonyms:

cobwebby; diaphanous; filmy; gauze-like; gauzy; gossamer; see-through; sheer; transparent; vaporous; vapourous

Context example:

vaporous silks

Similar:

thin (of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section)

 Context examples 

It was a little thing with a veil of gossamer on its head.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But she was so incorporated with my existence, that it was the idlest of all fancies, and would soon rise out of my reach and sight, like gossamer floating in the air.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And the chief thing demanded by these intricacies of civilisation was control, restraint—a poise of self that was as delicate as the fluttering of gossamer wings and at the same time as rigid as steel.

(White Fang, by Jack London)