net

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An openwork fabric made of threads or cords that are woven or knotted together at regular intervals.
2. n. Something made of openwork fabric, especially:
3. n. A device for capturing birds, fish, or insects.
4. n. A barrier against flying insects.
5. n. A mesh for holding the hair in place.
6. n. Something that entraps; a snare.
7. n. A fine mesh fabric used as curtain or dress material or as the foundation for various laces.
8. n. Sports A barrier of meshwork cord or rope strung between two posts to divide a court in half, as in tennis and badminton.
9. n. Sports A ball that is hit into this meshwork barrier.
10. n. Sports The goal in soccer, hockey, and lacrosse.
11. n. Sports The cord meshwork attached to the hoop of a basket in basketball.
12. n. A meshed network of lines, figures, or fibers.
13. n. A radio, television, or telephone network.
14. n. Computer Science See network.
15. v. To catch or ensnare in or as if in a net.
16. v. To cover, protect, or surround with or as if with a net.
17. v. Sports To hit (a ball) into the net.
18. v. To make into a net.
19. adj. Business Remaining after all deductions have been made, as for expenses: net profit.
20. adj. Business Remaining after tare is deducted: net weight.
21. adj. Ultimate; final: the net result.
22. n. Business A net amount, as of profit or weight.
23. n. The main point; the essence: the net of our discussion.
24. v. To bring in or yield as profit.
25. v. To clear as profit.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An open textile fabric, of cotton, linen, hemp, silk, or other material, tied or woven with a mesh of any size, designed or used for catching animals alive, either by inclosing or by entangling them; a netting or network used as a snare or trap. Nets are of high antiquity, and there are almost as many kinds of them as there are ways in which a piece of netting or a network can be adapted to the capture of animals. It is characteristic of nets to take the game alive, either by surrounding or inclosing it as in a bag or by entangling” it in meshes. Many kinds of net are described and named—from the nature of the game, as, bird-nets, butterfly-nets, fish-nets; from the way in which the game is taken, as, gill-net, gilling-net; from the way in which the net is handled or worked, as. beating-net, dip-net, draw-net, drag-net, drift-net, drop-net, hand-net, landing-net, set net, stake-net, scoop-net; from the shape of the netting, as, bag-net, purse-net, etc. In the fisheries in which nets are most used, many of them take other names, as fyke, pound, seine, weir, trap. (See these words and the above compounds.) Nets range in size from a few inches to a mile or more: thus, seines have been made reaching (with the ropes which haul them) 5 miles, and sweeping more than 1,000 acres of water-bottom. The material ranges from the finest silk, muslin, etc., to stout cordage; gut or sinew is sometimes used. The mesh is always made with a fixed, not running, knot. The appliances of nets are numerous: as, buoys or buoy-lines to float one border of the net or indicate the whereabouts of a net under water; sinkers, leads, or leadlines to sink one bolder of the net to the bottom of the water; cords or ropes for setting, stretching, hauling, pursing, etc., often worked by mechanical contrivances, as a windlass operated by horse- or steam-power; poles or stakes for setting, etc. In some kinds of set-nets or weirs the staking or paling is so extensive in comparison with the netting that the contrivance is converted into a wooden trap, and is, in fact, called a trap. See net, transitive verb, 2.
2. n. Figuratively, a snare or device for entrapping or misleading in any way; a moral or mental trap or entanglement.
3. n. A light open woven fabric, as gauze or muslin, worn or used its a protection from annoying insects: as, a mosquito- net spread over a bed.
4. n. Machine-made lace of many kinds. The varieties of machine-net formerly made were whip-net, mail-net, patent net, drop-net, spider-net, balloon-net. The modern varieties, named according to the kind of mesh employed, are warp-net, point-net, and bobbin-net. Broad net is woven as wide as the machine will allow. Quillings are narrow widths, several being made at one time in the breadth of the machine. Fancy net has a gimp pattern worked in by hand (called lace-darning) or by the Jacquard attachment.
5. n. A light open meshed bag for holding or confining the hair. Some are made of threads so fine that they are called invisible nets.
6. n. Anything formed with interstices or meshes like a net.
7. n. In anatomy and zoology, a reticulation or cancellation; a network of anastomosing or inosculating filaments or vessels; a web or mesh; a rete.
8. n. In mathematics, a rectilinear figure drawn as follows. For a plane net, four points in a plane are assumed, and through pairs of them, and of points subsequently obtained as intersections of lines, straight lines are drawn. For a net in space, five points are assumed, through triads of which, and of points subsequently obtained as intersections of three planes, planes are drawn.
9. n. A machine-made ground imitating the above.
10. Made of netting: as, a net fence.
11. Resembling netting; having a structure which is like netting—that is, one which has open meshes, large in proportion to the thickness of the threads.
12. Caught in a net; netted: as, net fish.
13. Reticulate or cancellate; netted or net-veined, as an insect's wings.
14. Decorative work done upon net, but not strictly needlework, as muslin appliqué (which see, under muslin).
15. To make as a net; make network of; form into a netting; mesh; knot or weave in meshes.
16. To capture or take with a net, as game; insnare, entangle, or entrap in or by means of network, as any animal. Quadrupeds are not often netted, traps or snares or guns being commonly used for their capture. Birds are netted in several different ways: by springing a net over them; by driving them into a winged and tunneled net, as ducks; by the use of a hand-net on a pole, as in taking insects; and by entangling them in the meshes of a spread net. Fishes, including shellfish, are netted by every device which can be put into effect by means of network. The use of the net in these cases is, however, in one of two leading methods, entangling and inclosing. In the former of these, the fish swims against a vertical sheet of netting, finds the mesh too small to go through, and is caught by the gills in trying to back out. Insects are netted by collectors in one of two ways: with the butterfly-net, which is a very light bag of silk, gauze, etc., on a frame and pole; and with the beating-net, a bag of stout cloth or light canvas on a frame, with a short handle, used to beat or brush the grass and bushes. See net, n.
17. To take as if with a net; capture by arts, wiles, or stratagems; entangle in difficulty; beguile.
18. To put into or surround with a net for protection or safe-keeping; hold in place by means of a net, as one's hair; veil or cover, as the head with a net; spread a net over or around, as a fruit-tree to keep off the birds, or a bed to keep out mosquitos.
19. To make nets or form network; be occupied in knotting or weaving a suitable material into netting.
20. To use the net in capturing game as an art or industry: as, he nets for a living.
21. Clear; pure; unadulterated; neat: as, net (unadulterated) wines.
22. Clear of anything extraneous; with all deductions (such as charges, expenses, discounts, commissions, taxes, etc.) made: as, net profits or earnings; net proceeds; net weight.
23. Lowest; not subject to further deduction or discount: as, these prices are net.
24. To gain or produce as clear profit: as, to net a thousand dollars in a business transaction; the sale netted a hundred dollars.
25. n. In cricket, an open fabric of twine placed so as to enable batsmen to practise without inconveniencing one another.
26. n. In mining, a heavy leather harness used for lowering or raising horses in a shaft.
27. Abbreviations of the Italian netto, free from all deductions.

Wiktionary

1. adj. obsolete Good, desirable; clean, decent, clear.
2. adj. Remaining after expenses or deductions.
3. adj. Final; endly.
4. n. The amount remaining after expenses are deducted; profit.
5. v. transitive To receive as profit.
6. v. transitive To yield as profit for.
7. v. To fully hedge a position.
8. n. A mesh of string, cord or rope.
9. n. A device made from such mesh, used for catching fish, butterflies, etc.
10. n. A device made from such mesh, generally used for trapping something.
11. n. Anything that has the appearance of such a device.
12. n. by extension A trap.
13. n. geometry Of a polyhedron, any set of polygons joined edge to edge that, when folded along the edges between adjoining polygons so that the outer edges touch, form the polyhedron.
14. n. computing A computer network.
15. n. sports A framework backed by a mesh, serving as the goal in hockey, soccer, lacrosse, etc.
16. n. sports, tennis A mesh stretched to divide the court in tennis, badminton, volleyball, etc.
17. v. transitive To catch by means of a net.
18. v. transitive (figuratively) To catch in a trap.
19. v. transitive (soccer) To score (a goal).
20. v. tennis To hit the ball into the net.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A fabric of twine, thread, or the like, wrought or woven into meshes, and used for catching fish, birds, butterflies, etc.
2. n. Anything designed or fitted to entrap or catch; a snare; any device for catching and holding.
3. n. Anything wrought or woven in meshes
4. n. (Geom.) A figure made up of a large number of straight lines or curves, which are connected at certain points and related to each other by some specified law.
5. n. informal A network.
6. n. slang The internet; -- usually the net.
7. v. To make into a net; to make in the style of network.
8. v. To take in a net; to capture by stratagem or wile.
9. v. To inclose or cover with a net.
10. v. To form network or netting; to knit.
11. adj. obsolete Without spot; pure; shining.
12. adj. rare Free from extraneous substances; pure; unadulterated; neat.
13. adj. Not including superfluous, incidental, or foreign matter, as boxes, coverings, wraps, etc.; free from charges, deductions, etc
14. v. To produce or gain as clear profit.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. construct or form a web, as if by weaving
2. n. the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)
3. n. a trap made of netting to catch fish or birds or insects
4. n. a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange
5. adj. conclusive in a process or progression
6. adj. remaining after all deductions
7. n. a goal lined with netting (as in soccer or hockey)
8. n. an open fabric of string or rope or wire woven together at regular intervals
9. n. game equipment consisting of a strip of netting dividing the playing area in tennis or badminton
10. v. yield as a net profit
11. v. make as a net profit
12. v. catch with a net