gossamer

/ˈgɑsəmər/

/ˈgɑsəmə/

Other forms: gossamers

Gossamer is something super fine and delicate — like a spider web or the material of a wedding veil.

The original gossamer, from which these meanings come from, is the fine, filmy substance spiders excrete to weave their webs. A dress can be gossamer-like, if its fabric is so sheer as to be see-through, or almost. Your chances of going to a good college are "gossamer thin" if you've never cracked a book in high school.

Definitions of gossamer

1. noun

   a gauze fabric with an extremely fine texture
   type of:

   gauze, netting, veiling

   a net of transparent fabric with a loose open weave
2. noun

   filaments from a web that was spun by a spider
   synonyms: cobweb

   type of:

   fibril, filament, strand

   a very slender natural or synthetic fiber
3. adjective

   characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy
   “gossamer shading through his playing”

   synonyms: ethereal

   delicate

   exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury
4. adjective

   so thin as to transmit light
   “gossamer cobwebs”

   synonyms: cobwebby, diaphanous, filmy, gauze-like, gauzy, see-through, sheer, transparent, vaporous, vapourous

   thin

   of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section