Gossamer
noun
Something very light, thin, and insubstantial or delicate.
The butterfly's wings were like gossamer in their delicate transparency.
Often appears as...
- gossamer wings
- gossamer threads
adjective
Extremely light, delicate, or tenuous.
Her gossamer gown was almost see-through in the sunlight.
Often appears as...
- gossamer thin
- gossamer-like
noun
A fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs spun by small spiders, seen especially in autumn.
Early morning dew made the gossamer in the trees glint in the light.
Often appears as...
- gossamer cobwebs
- gossamer spiders
noun
Something very light, thin, and insubstantial or delicate.
The butterfly's wings were like gossamer in their delicate transparency.
Often appears as...
- gossamer wings
- gossamer threads
adjective
Extremely light, delicate, or tenuous.
Her gossamer gown was almost see-through in the sunlight.
Often appears as...
- gossamer thin
- gossamer-like
noun
A fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs spun by small spiders, seen especially in autumn.
Early morning dew made the gossamer in the trees glint in the light.
Often appears as...
- gossamer cobwebs
- gossamer spiders
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Metaphorical Use
Used to describe something that's ultra-light or fine — often metaphorically to stress delicacy.
Their love was like gossamer, fragile and precious.
Pro Tip 2/3Figurative Descriptions
Favors poetic or expressive descriptions where you evoke a sense of elegance or fragility.
The dancer moved with a gossamer grace.
Pro Tip 3/3Non-material Concepts
Can be used to discuss non-physical entities like feelings or ideas as being delicate.
The gossamer thread of hope kept them going.
Pro Tip 1/3Metaphorical Use
Used to describe something that's ultra-light or fine — often metaphorically to stress delicacy.
Their love was like gossamer, fragile and precious.
Pro Tip 2/3Figurative Descriptions
Favors poetic or expressive descriptions where you evoke a sense of elegance or fragility.
The dancer moved with a gossamer grace.
Pro Tip 3/3Non-material Concepts
Can be used to discuss non-physical entities like feelings or ideas as being delicate.
The gossamer thread of hope kept them going.
Pro Tip 1/3Metaphorical Use
Used to describe something that's ultra-light or fine — often metaphorically to stress delicacy.
Their love was like gossamer, fragile and precious.
Pro Tip 2/3Figurative Descriptions
Favors poetic or expressive descriptions where you evoke a sense of elegance or fragility.
The dancer moved with a gossamer grace.
Pro Tip 3/3Non-material Concepts
Can be used to discuss non-physical entities like feelings or ideas as being delicate.
The gossamer thread of hope kept them going.
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Video examples
Safari Live - Day 69 PIPE...
day are laid sometimes by the really big Queens whoops we understand he fell on his bottom and it's all for this time when the termite elites come out of these holes and they're fly off in those enormous clouds of gossamer wings often
Video examples
A poetic experiment:...
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul."
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 69 PIPE...
day are laid sometimes by the really big Queens whoops we understand he fell on his bottom and it's all for this time when the termite elites come out of these holes and they're fly off in those enormous clouds of gossamer wings often
Video examples
A poetic experiment:...
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul."
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Phillipa Soo
American Actress
My mother took my brother and I to a production of 'The Tempest', and it was in this very small - it could have been the basement of a church or a black box. The space was vast, but there were maybe 15 seats in the middle. Ariel came out wearing a nude sparkly thong and spike heels, and the muses had these gossamer see-through gowns on.
Quote examples
Anohni
English Musician
Artists have different responsibilities in different eras. But at this point, I really feel like it's all hands on deck. An artist that's fiddle-faddling in opaque, gossamer gestures - I mean it's fine to do that, totally fine, but there's no time left. We don't have the luxury of time anymore.
Quote examples
Richard Jefferies
English Writer
A kestrel can and does hover in the dead calm of summer days, when there is not the faintest breath of wind. He will, and does, hover in the still, soft atmosphere of early autumn, when the gossamer falls in showers, coming straight down as if it were raining silk.
Quote examples
William Godwin
English Writer
The mind of a child is no less vagrant than his steps; it pursues the gossamer and flies from object to object, lawless and unconfined, and it is equally necessary to the development of his frame that his thoughts and his body should be free from fetters.
Quote examples
Louis Sullivan
American Architect
It is the mass dream of inverted self, populous with fears overt and secret, that forms the continuous but gossamer thread upon which are strung as phantom beads all civilizations from the remotest past of record to that of the present day and hour.
Quote examples
Edgar Allan Poe
American Poet
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.
Quote examples
Rene Ricard
American Poet
I had to make my history quick because there would be no future, merely a gossamer world blown about on the zeitgeist, till zeitgeist, the wind of the times, is blasted away by kamikaze, the wind of God.
Quote examples
Steve Rushin
American Journalist
Golf mogul Donald Trump sports an arrangement of hair that is less a comb-over than a 'do-over, a candy-floss confection of gossamer wisps that comes off as the clumsiest cover-up since Watergate.
Quote examples
Stacey D'Erasmo
American Novelist
Music is quicksilver, gossamer; careers are measured in butterfly lifetimes.
Quote examples
Phillipa Soo
American Actress
My mother took my brother and I to a production of 'The Tempest', and it was in this very small - it could have been the basement of a church or a black box. The space was vast, but there were maybe 15 seats in the middle. Ariel came out wearing a nude sparkly thong and spike heels, and the muses had these gossamer see-through gowns on.
Quote examples
Anohni
English Musician
Artists have different responsibilities in different eras. But at this point, I really feel like it's all hands on deck. An artist that's fiddle-faddling in opaque, gossamer gestures - I mean it's fine to do that, totally fine, but there's no time left. We don't have the luxury of time anymore.
Quote examples
Richard Jefferies
English Writer
A kestrel can and does hover in the dead calm of summer days, when there is not the faintest breath of wind. He will, and does, hover in the still, soft atmosphere of early autumn, when the gossamer falls in showers, coming straight down as if it were raining silk.
Quote examples
William Godwin
English Writer
The mind of a child is no less vagrant than his steps; it pursues the gossamer and flies from object to object, lawless and unconfined, and it is equally necessary to the development of his frame that his thoughts and his body should be free from fetters.
Quote examples
Louis Sullivan
American Architect
It is the mass dream of inverted self, populous with fears overt and secret, that forms the continuous but gossamer thread upon which are strung as phantom beads all civilizations from the remotest past of record to that of the present day and hour.
Quote examples
Edgar Allan Poe
American Poet
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.
Quote examples
Rene Ricard
American Poet
I had to make my history quick because there would be no future, merely a gossamer world blown about on the zeitgeist, till zeitgeist, the wind of the times, is blasted away by kamikaze, the wind of God.
Quote examples
Steve Rushin
American Journalist
Golf mogul Donald Trump sports an arrangement of hair that is less a comb-over than a 'do-over, a candy-floss confection of gossamer wisps that comes off as the clumsiest cover-up since Watergate.
Quote examples
Stacey D'Erasmo
American Novelist
Music is quicksilver, gossamer; careers are measured in butterfly lifetimes.
Example 1 of 9
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