comb
Plural: combs
Noun
- a flat device with narrow pointed teeth on one edge; disentangles or arranges hair
- the fleshy red crest on the head of the domestic fowl and other gallinaceous birds
- any of several tools for straightening fibers
- ciliated comb-like swimming plate of a ctenophore
- the act of drawing a comb through hair
- "his hair needed a comb"
- A toothed implement:
- A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.
- A toothed implement:
- A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
- A toothed implement:
- The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings.
- A toothed implement:
- A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.
- A toothed implement:
- The notched scale of a wire micrometer.
- A toothed implement:
- The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.
- A toothed implement:
- A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis.
- A toothed implement:
- A toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave.
- A toothed implement:
- One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions, with which they comb substrate.
- A crest:
- A fleshy growth on the top of the head of some birds and reptiles; crest.
- A crest:
- A crest (of metal, leather, etc) on a piece of armor, especially on a helmet.
- A crest:
- The top part of a gun’s stock.
- A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.
- The main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.
- A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening soft fibre.
- An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.
- The curling crest of a wave; a comber.
- A connected and reduced curve with irreducible components consisting of a smooth subcurve (called the handle) and one or more additional irreducible components (called teeth) that each intersect the handle in a single point that is unequal to the unique point of intersection for any of the other teeth.
- A kind of vertical plate in a lode.
- Abbreviation of combination.
- Alternative form of combe.
- Alternative form of coomb.
Verb
Verb Forms: combed, combing, combs
- To arrange or clean with a toothed instrument; to search extensively.
- straighten with a comb
- "comb your hair"
- search thoroughly
- "They combed the area for the missing child"
- smoothen and neaten with or as with a comb
- "comb your hair before dinner"
- "comb the wool"
- To groom with a toothed implement, especially a comb.
- To separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
- To search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.
- To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.
- To turn a vessel parallel to (the track of) (a torpedo) so as to reduce one's size as a target.
Examples
- He had to COMB through his mental dictionary to find the perfect word.
- I need to comb my hair before we leave the house.
- Police combed the field for evidence after the assault.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English comb, from Old English camb (“comb”), from Proto-West Germanic *kamb, from Proto-Germanic *kambaz (“comb”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth”), a doublet of cam. The verb is derived from the noun and displaced the older verb kemb.
Cognates
Compare Saterland Frisian Koum, Swedish/Dutch kam, Danish kam, Norwegian kam, German Kamm; also Tocharian B keme, Lithuanian žam̃bas (“sharp edge”), Old Church Slavonic зѫбъ (zǫbŭ), Albanian dhëmb, Ancient Greek γομφίος (gomphíos, “backtooth, molar”), Sanskrit जम्भ (jambha)).
Scrabble Score: 10
comb: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcomb: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
comb: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary