comb

plural combs

1. A toothed implement:
   1. A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.

      There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…].

      1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN

   2. A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
   3. The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings.
   4. A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.
   5. The notched scale of a wire micrometer.
   6. The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.
   7. A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis.
   8. businessA toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave.
   9. One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions, with which they comb substrate.
   10. A ctene.

       Ctenophores are mostly planktonic creatures about the size and shape of a kiwi fruit or grape, bearing rows of beating "combs."

       2001, Julian Sprung, Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide, page 35

2. A crest:
   1. A fleshy growth on the top of the head of some birds and reptiles; crest.

      I also obtained here a specimen of the rare green jungle-fowl (Gallus furcatus), whose back and neck are beautifully scaled with bronzy feathers, and whose smooth-edged oval comb is of a violet purple colour, changing to green at the base.

      1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 170

      Synonyms: cockscomb, crest

   2. broadlyA crest (of metal, leather, etc) on a piece of armor, especially on a helmet.

      The combs or elbow pieces are beautifully made, and over the right armpit is […]

      1909, Albert Frederick Calvert, Madrid: An Historical Description and Handbook of the Spanish Capital, page 82

      3 more examples

      The head-dress of the Horse Grenadiers consists of a peculiar leather helmet with a comb of bear's skin passing over it from ear to ear and a long scarlet […]

      1888, “Journal of the United Service Institution of India”, in United Service Institution of India, page 197

      The armet has usually a low central cabled comb with parallel flutes on either side, occasionally there are three or five combs.

      1898, John Starkie Gardner, Armour in England from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century, page 44

      Charles I. (Edinburgh Castle) The Pikeman of the time of James I. was accoutred in a morion-shaped helmet with a comb of moderate size and a flat brim, […]

      2021, Charles Henry Ashdown, British and Foreign Arms & Armour, Good Press

   3. The top part of a gun’s stock.
3. A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.

   The combs of the wild bees are found on overhanging precipices, and the only means by which they can be reached is to descend from above on narrow cane ladders just wide enough for a man’s foot, and often 300 feet to 400 feet long.

   1909, John Claude White, Sikhim and Bhutan, page 9

4. entertainmentThe main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.
5. A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening soft fibre.
6. An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.

   But the comb or half quarter is very general in the Eastern counties, particularly in Norfolk.

   1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 207

7. The curling crest of a wave; a comber.
8. algebraic geometryA 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.
9. CornwallobsoletebusinessA kind of vertical plate in a lode.

present singular third person combs · participle present combing · participle past combed · past combed

1. transitiveEspecially of hair or fur, to groom with a toothed implement, especially a comb.

   I like the way you comb your hair / And I like those stylish clothes you wear / It's just the little things you do / That show how much you really care

   1982, Debarge, “I Like It (DeBarge song)”, in All This Love (album)

2. transitiveTo separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
3. transitiveTo search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.

   Police combed the field for evidence after the assault.

   1 more example

   The search party, consisting of family and friends, combed the woods and the survey site thoroughly.

   2026 August 23, Aniket Chaughule, “Christopher Thompkins Vanished From a Georgia Survey Site in 2002. His Coworkers Were Only 50 Feet Away”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 24 Aug 2026

4. intransitivenauticalTo roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.
5. transitivegovernmentTo turn a vessel parallel to (the track of) (a torpedo) so as to reduce one's size as a target.

   Sixteen torpedo bombers divided their attention between the two ships. Repulse combed the torpedo wakes and knocked down two of the attackers.

   2013, Steve Backer, British Battlecruisers of the Second World War, page 10

   1 more example

   The aircraft split up so as to attack from different, preselected bearings, thus confusing the gunners and making it difficult for the ship to comb torpedo tracks.

   2010, Jim Crossley, Bismarck: The Epic Chase

plural combs

1. abbreviationrareAbbreviation of combination.

   Synonyms: combo

plural combs

1. alternativeAlternative form of combe.

plural combs

1. alternativedialectalAlternative form of coomb.

   1 more example

   [Regarding a period of agricultural depression] Even on the good land where the farmer hadn't enough capital to look after it and have it properly drained he couldn't hold on. He'd be getting a yield of eight combs of wheat and ten combs of barley per acre. But that wasn't good enough: it gave him no leeway. This is understandable when you recollect the price of wheat at that time.

   1971, George Ewart Evans, quoting auctioneer Aston Gaze, Tools of Their Trades: An Oral History of Men at Work c. 1900, Taplinger Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 109