Meaning

noun a fabric so delicate and transparent as to resemble a web of a spider

noun filaments from a web that was spun by a spider

noun a dense elaborate spider web that is more efficient than the orb web

originFrom Middle English copweb, coppeweb. Compare Middle Dutch kopwebbe, German Low German Kobbenwebbe (Westphalian). By surface analysis, cob (“spider”, obsolete) + web.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0