cobweb

noun7

1. •
   A spiderweb, especially a large one, an old abandoned one covered with debris and dust or an asymmetrical one woven with an irregular pattern of threads.

   • […] 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. — 1865
2. •
   [usually plural] (informal) Fuzzy inexact memories; confusion.

   • I washed my face, trying to get the cobwebs of hard sex and an alcohol-induced sleep out of my head — 2008
3. •
   One of a spiderweb's filaments; gossamer; anything flimsy and gauzy, intricately interconnected or otherwise like a cobweb.
4. •
   (figurative) Something thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; valueless remainder.

   • The dust and cobwebs of that uncivil age. — 1587
5. •
   (figurative) An intricate plot to catch the unwary; something entangling or confusing.

   • I was confused by the cobwebs of contract law.
6. •
   [usually plural] (informal, figurative) A web page that either has not been updated for a long time, or one that is rarely visited.
7. •
   The European spotted flycatcher, Muscicapa striata.