figurative (literary or poetic). Something insubstantial or impermanent; a fleeting or transient moment. Also: a very small margin, a very short…

Applied to something empty, vain, trifling, or unsubstantial. gen.

figurative. Used esp. (see sense 2a) to denote something unsubstantial or worthless.

As a type of the fleeting or unsubstantial.

transferred and figurative. Applied to something light and flimsy as gossamer.

figurative and in figurative contexts. Something likened to a cobweb, esp. in being a snare or means of entanglement, or in being delicate…

More fully castle of comedown. Something which falls to ruin or is destined to fail. Cf. comedown, adj. 1. Obsolete.

figurative. Anything fragile, insubstantial, empty, or worthless; a deceptive show.

fig. The withered lifeless form of anything.

figurative. Anything from which the ‘life’, ‘soul’, or essence is gone; the lifeless shell or husk, the ‘corpse’, ‘skeleton’.

An appearance or phenomenon which has no substantial or concrete existence. Obsolete.

An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all.

An ethereal thing, being, or idea. Usually in plural.

a bubble produced by exhaling underwater; (also figurative) something of little value or importance, a trifle.