<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>A bag or other contrivance of strong thread or cord worked into an open, meshed fabric, for catching fish, birds, or other animals: a butterfly net.</li><li>A piece of meshed fabric designed to serve a specific purpose, as to divide a court in racket games or protect against insects: a tennis net; a mosquito net.</li><li>Anything serving to catch or ensnare: a police net to trap the bank robber.</li><li>A lacelike fabric with a uniform mesh of cotton, silk, rayon, nylon, etc., often forming the foundation of any of various laces.</li><li>(In tennis, badminton, etc.) A ball that hits the net.</li><li>Often nets. The goal in hockey or lacrosse.</li><li>Any network or reticulated system of filaments, lines, veins, or the like.</li><li>Telecommunications. Any network containing computers and telecommunications equipment.</li><li>Digital Technology. Internet (preceded by the, except when used before a noun): An overwhelming majority of Americans now have access to the net at home or at work.</li><li>Mathematics. The abstraction, in topology, of a sequence; a map from a directed set to a given space.</li><li>Net, Astronomy. The constellation Reticulum.</li><li>Informal. A radio or television network.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used with object)</strong></p><ul><li>Netted, netting. To cover, screen, or enclose with a net or netting: netting the bed to keep out mosquitoes.</li><li>To take with a net: to net fish.</li><li>To set or use nets in (a river, stream, etc.), as for catching fish.</li><li>Synonyms: trap, capture, seize.</li><li>To catch or ensnare: to net a dangerous criminal.</li><li>(In tennis, badminton, etc.) To hit (the ball) into the net.</li></ul>