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Antonyms for gossamer

Grammar : Adj
Spell : gos-uh-mer
Phonetic Transcription : ˈgɒs ə mər

Definition of gossamer

Origin :
  • c.1300, "spider threads spun in fields of stubble in late fall," apparently from gos "goose" + sumer "summer" (cf. Swedish sommertrad "summer thread"). The reference might be to a fancied resemblance of the silk to goose down, or because geese are in season then. The German equivalent mädchensommer (literally "girls' summer") also has a sense of "Indian summer," and the English word originally may have referred to a warm spell in autumn before being transferred to a phenomenon especially noticable then. Cf. obsolete Scottish go-summer "period of summer-like weather in late autumn." Meaning "anything light or flimsy" is from c.1400. The adjective sense "filmy" is attested from 1802.
  • adj gauzy, thin
Example sentences :
  • "Your hints are always as delicate as gossamer," said Temple.
  • Extract from : « The Incomplete Amorist » by E. Nesbit
  • How like is the down of the fruit to the first gossamer down of the heart—and ah!
  • Extract from : « Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 5. May 1848 » by Various
  • But only stoop—catch the light thwartwise—and all is a silver network of gossamer!
  • Extract from : « The Golden Age » by Kenneth Grahame
  • You know how they capture the creatures on which they live; by weaving webs of gossamer, is it not?
  • Extract from : « The Memorabilia » by Xenophon
  • The gossamer floatings of this French danseuse possessed 258 everyone.
  • Extract from : « The Strollers » by Frederic S. Isham
  • For weeks it hung trembling on a thread slender and weak as the gossamer's web.
  • Extract from : « Ernest Linwood » by Caroline Lee Hentz
  • Why, it is more idle than the passing wind, lighter than the down of the gossamer.
  • Extract from : « Ernest Linwood » by Caroline Lee Hentz
  • It is like the pursuit of the gossamer, which the least breath sweeps away.
  • Extract from : « Barn and the Pyrenees » by Louisa Stuart Costello
  • I have no idea what place these gossamer threads occupy in the economy of nature.
  • Extract from : « Gossamer » by George A. Birmingham
  • Why, that he had not been tied down by ropes at all, but only by thousands of gossamer webs!
  • Extract from : « Cornwall's Wonderland » by Mabel Quiller-Couch

Synonyms for gossamer

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019