Spidey-sense

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

English edit

WOTD – 4 August 2019

Alternative forms edit

spider sense, spidey sense, Spidey sense, Spidey Sense
(less common forms) Spider sense, Spider Sense, spidey-sense, Spidey-Sense

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈspaɪdi ˌsɛn(t)s/
Audio (RP) (file)
Hyphenation: Spid‧ey-sense

Noun edit

Spidey-sense (plural Spidey-senses)

(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.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Spidey-sense.

Related terms edit

my spider sense is tingling

Translations edit

intuitive feeling

French: sens d’araignée m
German: Spinnensinn m
Italian: senso di ragno m
Portuguese: sentido-aranha m
Spanish: sentido arácnido m