gossamer — ozdic

Definitions

noun

1

A fine film made up of cobwebs, seen floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc.

A lover may bestride the gossamer / That idles in the wanton summer air, / And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

The filmy Gossamer now flitts no more,

2

A soft, sheer fabric.

Madame wiped the picture with her gossamer handkerchief and impulsively pressed a tender kiss upon the painted canvas.

She takes a large, gossamer scarf from the trunk and drapes it about her shoulders.

3

Anything delicate, light and flimsy.

adj

1

Tenuous, light, filmy or delicate.

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

The heaven was spangled with tremulous stars, and at the horizon the clouds hung down in gossamer folds—God's robe trailing in the sea!

Collocations

4

ADJ.

english, silver

VERB + GOSSAMER

drifted, hung, like, threads

GOSSAMER + NOUN

fidelity, flitts, god's, m, passin, robe, sky, years

PREP.

down, in, in

Thesaurus

Synonyms

noun — filaments from a web that was spun by a spider

cobweb

adjective — characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy

ethereal

adjective — so thin as to transmit light

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Example Bank

6

01

A lover may bestride the gossamer / That idles in the wanton summer air, / And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

Wiktionary

02

The filmy Gossamer now flitts no more,

Wiktionary

03

I had been dead-heavy before, and now I felt a kind of dreadful lightness, which would not suffer me to walk. I drifted like a gossamer; the ground seemed to me a cloud, the hills a feather-weight, th

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04

There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of m

Wiktionary

05

The heaven was spangled with tremulous stars, and at the horizon the clouds hung down in gossamer folds—God's robe trailing in the sea!

Wiktionary

06

He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passin

Wiktionary

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, gossamer is marked as figuratively. Watch for register when choosing this word.