What does spidered mean?
Spidered is the past tense of the verb spider. Its main technical meaning is to search a network of linked documents automatically by following hyperlinks, an action performed by software known as a spider or web crawler. Such programs may visit pages, follow their links, and collect information for indexing or analysis. Spidered also has a less formal physical sense: to move in an irregular, branching, or probing manner, like a spider. This use often suggests that someone is searching an unfamiliar area or testing a route as they go. The computing sense is clear and internationally used, while the physical sense is more literary and depends on the comparison with a spider for its vivid effect. Together, the senses associate the word with persistent exploration: a digital crawler covering connected pages and a person cautiously searching an unknown environment.
verbMoved in a quick, irregular or branching manner, like a spider. In computing, searched or indexed a network of linked documents by following their hyperlinks.
- Searched or indexed a network of linked documents by following hyperlinks.
- Moved in a quick, irregular or branching manner resembling the movement of a spider.
"The researcher spidered the archive and found several previously overlooked articles."
"The crawler spidered the site every night to check for changed pages."
"She spidered through the rubble, testing each unstable ledge before moving forward."
Before search engines became everyday tools, software spiders quietly explored the web by following links from page to page.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does spidered come from?
Spidered was formed by adding the past-tense suffix -ed to the verb spider. The noun and older verb spider comes from Old English spīra and ultimately from a Germanic word associated with stretching or extending, a sense preserved in related forms such as spindle and span. The specialized computing sense developed by analogy with a spider moving over its web.
Related word forms
How spidered is actually used
The computing sense is standard technical usage, while the physical sense is literary or informal and conveys erratic, exploratory movement. The word most often appears in the past tense because the action is presented as completed.