Gossamer
['gɒsəmə] or ['ɡɑsəmɚ]
Definition
(n.) A fine, filmy substance, like cobwebs, floating in the air, in calm, clear weather, especially in autumn. It is seen in stubble fields and on furze or low bushes, and is formed by small spiders.
(n.) Any very thin gauzelike fabric; also, a thin waterproof stuff.
(n.) An outer garment, made of waterproof gossamer.
Typist: Remington
Definition
n. very fine spider-threads which float in the air or form webs on bushes in fine weather: any thin material.—adj. light flimsy.—adj. Goss′amery like gossamer: flimsy.
Typist: Theodore
Examples
- It was a little thing with a veil of gossamer on its head. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- With Ferdinand Barnacle he was gossamer. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Such an unworldly, uncalculating, gossamer creature is a relief to him and an amusement. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Think of such a gossamer thread of metal! Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Hows'ever it's lighter without it, that's one thing, and every hole lets in some air, that's another--wentilation gossamer I calls it. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- It was with such a furnace probably that India produced her keen-edged weapons that would cut a web of gossamer, and Damascus its flashing blades--the synonym of elastic strength. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Young love-making--that gossamer web! George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Typist: Silvia