Spidey-sense

See also: spidey sense, spidey-sense, Spidey sense, Spidey Sense, and Spidey-Sense

English

WOTD – 4 August 2019

Etymology

From the superpower of the fictional character Spider-Man (introduced by Marvel Comics in August 1962), nicknamed Spidey – an ability to sense danger before it can be perceived by other senses.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈspaɪdi ˌsɛn(t)s/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Spid‧ey-sense

Noun

Spidey-sense (plural Spidey-senses)

1. (humorous) An intuitive feeling, usually of something being dangerous or risky; (more generally) instinct, intuition.
   • 2003, Matthew F. Winn, chapter 1, in The Sandman, College Station, Tex.: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing, →ISBN, page 5:

     Having known the man for most of his life he had a certain Spidey-sense when it came to Tim’s problems.

   • 2004 December, Victoria Laurie, Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye (A Psychic Eye Mystery)‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Signet, New American Library, →ISBN:

     Abby, let me ask you this: Is your spidey sense sure Alison was killed by a man? Your other clues were that 'he' was short, wore oversized clothing, and had dark hair. What if Alison was killed by a butch-looking female?

   • 2005, Dave Zirin, “Stir of Echoes: A New Sporting Resistance?”, in What’s My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States, Chicago, Ill.: Haymarket Books, →ISBN, page 259:

     But the sports media elite, eating free press box sushi while the rest of us are paying $9.00 for a hot dog, could never understand what set our collective spidey senses tingling.

   • 2009, “Top Ten Ways to Shut Down Hackers”, in Securing Intellectual Property: Protecting Trade Secrets and Other Information Assets, Burlington, Mass.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Butterworth-Heinemann; Syngress, →ISBN, page 153:

     Don't settle for taking the world at face value. Too many people see a logo or a uniform and make bad assumptions. If your Spidey-sense tells you something's wrong, it probably is. If you don't have Spidey-sense, walk loudly and carry a big stick.

   • 2010, Tate Hallaway [pseudonym; Lyda Morehouse], Honeymoon of the Dead‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, →ISBN:

     A sense of foreboding, almost like a Spidey-sense, tingled at the back of my neck.

   • 2018 March 10, Brad Bagwell, chapter 1, in The Hunter: Southeast Asia, Ishpeming, Mich.: BookVenture Publishing, →ISBN, page 3:

     As I turn to the right to get to the Registration Desk, my spidey senses are starting to warn me. There's nothing I can see that is cause for immediate concern, but I know I've got to keep paying attention to those spidey senses. I know they've saved me in the past.

   • 2019 February 27, Fred Zinkie, “Ranking the Safest First-round Picks in Fantasy Baseball Drafts”, in Yahoo! Sports‎^[3], archived from the original on 18 March 2019:

     While we are all enticed by the roller-coaster ride that will come with owning a 21-year-old Ronald Acuna, most of our spidey-senses tell us that a safe player in the first round allows us to survive six months of injuries and ineffectiveness from some of our subsequent picks.

Alternative forms

The most common alternative forms are:

• spider sense
• Spidey sense
• spidey sense
• Spidey Sense

 

Other forms are:

• Spider sense
• Spider Sense
• spidey-sense
• Spidey-Sense

 

See also

• sixth sense

Further reading

• Spider-Man on Wikipedia.Wikipedia