Other forms: nets, netting, netted
A net is string knotted into a web full of holes. The tennis net stretched across the middle of the court, the net at the back of a goal bulging when the ball hits it, a fishing net coming up over the side of the boat and dripping on the deck.
Net is a verb as well: you net a fish, a striker nets a goal, a business nets two million in a bad year. Then there is the other net, which has nothing to do with string — net as opposed to gross, meaning what is left after tax and costs come off: net pay, net weight, net profit. The two words are spelled identically and only the sentence tells you which one has turned up. Safety net, hairnet, mosquito net and net curtains are all the string one. Slip through the net means a system built to catch you missed you completely.
1nounnetMaterial made of string or cord knotted into a mesh, or a piece of it made for a purpose such as catching fish.~7%
“The net came up heavy and full of weed.”
synonyms: mesh
2nounsportIn sport, the mesh dividing a court or stretched across the front of a goal.~28%
“Her serve clipped the net and dropped in for the point.”
3verbscoreTo catch something in a net, or to score a goal.~2%
“He netted twice in the second half.”
4adjectiveremainingRemaining after tax, costs and other deductions have been taken off.~63%
“Her net pay is a long way below the figure in the advert.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 14 sentences found in the wild and placed 14 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
net is a mesh.
Net runs straight back through Old English net to Proto-Germanic natją and a Proto-Indo-European root neHd-, meaning to knot, turn or twist. The word is about the knots rather than the holes. Dutch kept it as net and German as Netz.
Middle English
net
English, today
net
From Middle English net. From Middle English net, from Old English net, nett, from Proto-West Germanic nati, from Proto-Germanic natją (“net”), from Proto-Indo-European neHd- (“to knot, turn, twist”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA