What does webbing mean?
Webbing is a sturdy woven material produced in narrow strips or tape. Its strength and flexibility make it useful wherever a load must be held, supported, or secured, including chair and bed frames, backpacks, tents, belts, harnesses, and many other products. Nylon and polyester are common modern materials, but cotton webbing has long been used for straps and furniture supports. The word can also denote web-like or netlike woven material, though this sense is less frequent. In everyday descriptions, a person may say “a length of webbing” or “webbing straps” rather than treating the material simply as “tape.” Webbing is therefore more specific than a general word such as fabric or tape: it evokes narrow, woven bands designed to bear tension. It is especially familiar to anyone who has repaired a folding chair, examined climbing equipment, or handled packed luggage.
nounA strong, woven fabric made in narrow strips or tape, used especially for belts, harnesses, straps, and supports for furniture. The word can also refer more generally to web-like woven material.
- A strong woven tape or fabric made in narrow strips, used for straps, belts, harnesses, and furniture supports.
- Web-like or netlike woven material.
"The technician replaced the torn webbing on the folding chair with a fresh length of nylon webbing."
"The pack’s reinforced back panel is made from durable nylon webbing."
"The conservators examined the chair's original webbing before restoring the seat."
The plural is uncommon because webbing is normally treated as a mass noun or used attributively, as in “webbing straps.”
"The workshop stocks several webbings in different widths and colours."
From chair seats to climbing harnesses, webbing is often the narrow woven strip doing the heavy lifting.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does webbing come from?
Webbing was formed in English by adding the suffix “-ing” to “web,” a word recorded in Old English for woven material. As the noun developed, it came to name the strong woven strips used particularly for belts and other supports. Its semantic history is closely connected with the older sense of “web” as fabric or a woven network, which also underlies forms such as “cobweb” and the adjective “webbed.”
How webbing is actually used
Webbing is normally used as a mass noun for a type of material, although “a webbing” may refer to a particular strap or length of it. The term is practical and descriptive rather than literary, and it is especially common in manufacturing, outdoor equipment, upholstery, and furniture.
Easily confused with webbing
Webbing is the woven material, especially the narrow tape used for straps, whereas weaving names the process of interlacing threads or the resulting pattern.