Spidery describes something made of long, thin, uneven lines — lines that look like a spider's legs. Its most common use by far is about handwriting: 'spidery handwriting' is thin, scratchy writing with letters that seem to stretch out in odd directions, the kind an older person might write with a very fine pen, or the kind you get writing on a shaking train. It is not a compliment, but it is not really an insult either; it is a picture, and it often carries a feeling of age and fragility. You will also see it for bare tree branches against a winter sky, for thin cracks, and for anything long-limbed and slightly delicate: 'spidery legs', 'a spidery iron gate'. Some writers use it for the creepy feeling of a spider — a 'spidery' touch on your arm, or a spidery, crawling fear — but that is the smaller use. The word appears far more in novels than in conversation; you are more likely to read it than to hear a friend say it.

（線條）細長凌亂如蜘蛛腳的；形容字跡時指「潦草細瘦」。常見搭配 spidery handwriting，中文可說「像鬼畫符般細瘦潦草的字跡」，不是「有蜘蛛的」。