pectination

plural pectinations

1. countableuncountableThe state of being pectinate; something which is pectinate; a tooth in a pectinate structure.

   the complication or pectination of the fingers was an hieroglyphick of impediment

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   This tribe includes beetles of carnivorous habit with five segments on every foot, simple thread-like feelers with none of the segments enlarged to form club or pectination, and the outer lobs (galea) of the first maxilla usually two-segmented and palpiform

   1911, Coleoptera, Encyclopædia Britannica

   a substantially planar second electrode having at least two pectinations and positioned flat against the inner surface of the second substrate, wherein the pectinations are disposed parallel to the polarization axis of either one of the two polarizers

   1986 April 29, Takao Kawamura et al, “Liquid Crystal Device Having Interdigitated Electrodes”, in Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, volume 1065, number 5, page 2285

2. countableuncountableThe act of combing; the combing of the head.

   1 more example

   Sir John Rennie, the architect of Waterloo Bridge and other public works, never went to sleep without previously having his hair combed at the back of his head with a fine tooth comb, and rubbed gently with the palm of the hand. This pectination and manipulation induced sound sleep, and after an hour's rest or more, he arose refreshed and invigorated.

   1845, Edward Binns, Earl Philip Henry Stanhope Stanhope, The Anatomy of Sleep; Or, The Art of Procuring Sound and Refreshing Slumber at Will, John Churchill, page 401

3. countableuncountablebiologycomb-like toothing; a tooth in a pectinate structure.

   Antennae in the male with 9 very long bipectinations, and the apex bifid to form a tenth, the longest pectination about half as long as the whole antenna

   1906, Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association. Experiment Station, Entomological Series, Bulletin, number 1, page 80