Spidey-sense

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: spidey sense, spidey-sense, Spidey sense, Spidey Sense, and Spidey-Sense

English[edit]

WOTD – 4 August 2019

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

The most common alternative forms are:

Other forms are:

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Spidey-sense&oldid=58691696"