comb

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kōm, IPA^(key): /kəʊm/
• (US) enPR: kōm, IPA^(key): /koʊm/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -əʊm

Noun

comb (plural combs)

A comb for the hair.

1. A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.
   • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

     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; […].

2. A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
3. A fleshy growth on the top of the head of some birds and reptiles; crest.
4. A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.
5. An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Vol.4, p.207:

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

6. The top part of a gun’s stock.
7. The toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings.
8. (music) The main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.
9. A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening soft fibre.
10. A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.
11. The notched scale of a wire micrometer.
12. The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.
13. One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions.
14. The curling crest of a wave; a comber.
15. A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis.
16. (weaving) A toothed wooden pick used to push the weft thread tightly against the previous pass of thread to create a tight weave.
17. (algebraic geometry) 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.

Verb

comb (third-person singular simple present combs, present participle combing, simple past and past participle combed)

1. (transitive, especially of hair or fur) To groom with a toothed implement; chiefly with a comb.

   I need to comb my hair before we leave the house

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

   Police combed the field for evidence after the assault

4. (nautical, intransitive) To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɒmb/

Noun

comb (plural combs)

1. (abbreviation) Combination.

Noun

comb (plural combs)

1. Alternative form of combe

Declension

Derived terms

• combocska
• combos
• combú