comb

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

comb, n. [AS. camb; akin to Sw., Dan., & D. kam, Icel. kambr, G. kamm, Gr. a grinder tooth, Skr. jambha tooth.].

•  An instrument with teeth, for straightening, cleansing, and adjusting the hair, or for keeping it in place.  [1913 Webster]
•  An instrument for currying hairy animals, or cleansing and smoothing their coats; a currycomb.  [1913 Webster]
•  A toothed instrument used for separating and cleansing wool, flax, hair, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  The naked fleshy crest or caruncle on the upper part of the bill or hood of a cock or other bird. It is usually red.  [1913 Webster]
•  The curling crest of a wave.  [1913 Webster]
•  The waxen framework forming the walls of the cells in which bees store their honey, eggs, etc.; honeycomb.  Wyclif.  [1913 Webster]

  "When the bee doth leave her comb."  [1913 Webster]
•  The thumbpiece of the hammer of a gunlock, by which it may be cocked.  [1913 Webster]

comb, v. t. 

 To disentangle, cleanse, or adjust, with a comb; to lay smooth and straight with, or as with, a comb; as, to comb hair or wool. See under Combing.  [1913 Webster]
"Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright."  [1913 Webster]

comb, v. i. [See Comb, n., 5.].

 To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.  [1913 Webster]

comb, n. [AS. comb, prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. cwm a dale, valley.].

 That unwatered portion of a valley which forms its continuation beyond and above the most elevated spring that issues into it.  Buckland.  [1913 Webster]
"A gradual rise the shelving combe
Displayed."  [1913 Webster]

comb, n. 

 A dry measure. See Coomb.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

comb, n. & v.
--n.
1 a toothed strip of rigid material for tidying and arranging the hair, or for keeping it in place.
2 a part of a machine having a similar design or purpose.
3 a the red fleshy crest of a fowl, esp. a cock. b an analogous growth in other birds.
4 a honeycomb.
--v.tr.
1 arrange or tidy (the hair) by drawing a comb through.
2 curry (a horse).
3 dress (wool or flax) with a comb.
4 search (a place) thoroughly.

Idiom

comb out
1 tidy and arrange (hair) with a comb.
2 remove with a comb.
3 search or attack systematically.
4 search out and get rid of (anything unwanted).

Derivative

combed adj.

Etymology

OE camb f. Gmc

THESAURUS

comb

be poised, beat, billow, break, card, crash, curry, dash, ebb and flow, examine, forage, grub, hackle, hatchel, heave, heckle, inspect, investigate, lift, look all over, look everywhere, peak, popple, probe, rake, ransack, rifle, rise, rise and fall, roll, rummage, scend, scour, scrutinize, search, search high heaven, send, separate, shake, shake down, sift, smash, surge, swell, toss, turn inside out, turn upside down, undulate, wave, winnow

ROGET THESAURUS

comb

Cleanness

VB be clean, render clean, clean, cleanse, mundify, rinse, wring, flush, full, wipe, mop, sponge, scour, swab, scrub, brush up, wash, lave, launder, buck, absterge, deterge, decrassify, clear, purify, depurate, despumate, defecate, purge, expurgate, elutriate, lixiviate, edulcorate, clarify, refine, rack, filter, filtrate, drain, strain, disinfect, fumigate, ventilate, deodorize, whitewash, castrate, emasculate, sift, winnow, pick, weed, comb, rake, brush, sweep, rout out, clear out, sweep out, make a clean sweep of.

Punishment

VB punish, chastise, chasten, castigate, correct, inflict punishment, administer correction, deal retributive justice, cowhide, lambaste, visit upon, pay, pay out, serve out, do for, make short work of, give a lesson to, serve one right, make an example of, have a rod in pickle for, give it one, strike, deal a blow to, administer the lash, smite, slap, slap the face, smack, cuff, box the ears, spank, thwack, thump, beat, lay on, swinge, buffet, thresh, thrash, pummel, drub, leather, trounce, sandbag, baste, belabor, lace, lace one's jacket, dress, dress down, give a dressing, trim, warm, wipe, tund, cob, bang, strap, comb, lash, lick, larrup, wallop, whop, flog, scourge, whip, birch, cane, give the stick, switch, flagellate, horsewhip, bastinado, towel, rub down with an oaken towel, rib roast, dust one's jacket, fustigate, pitch into, lay about one, beat black and blue, beat to a mummy, beat to a jelly, give a black eye, tar and feather, pelt, stone, lapidate, masthead, keelhaul, execute, bring to the block, bring to the gallows, behead, decapitate, guillotine, decollate, hang, turn off, gibbet, bowstring, hang draw and quarter, shoot, decimate, burn, break on the wheel, crucify, empale, impale, flay, lynch, electrocute, gas, send to the gas chamber, torture, put on, put to the rack, picket, banish, exile, transport, expel, ostracize, rusticate, drum out, dismiss, disbar, disbench, strike off the roll, unfrock, post, suffer, suffer for, suffer punishment, be flogged, be executed, suffer the ultimate penalty, be hanged, come to the gallows, mount the gallows, swing, twist in the wind, dance upon nothing, die in one's shoes, be rightly served, be electrocuted, fry, ride the lightning, face the firing squad.

Sharpness

N sharpness, acuity, acumination, spinosity, point, spike, spine, spicule, spiculum, needle, hypodermic needle, tack, nail, pin, prick, prickle, spur, rowel, barb, spit, cusp, horn, antler, snag, tag thorn, bristle, Adam's needle, bear grass, tine, yucca, nib, tooth, tusk, spoke, cog, ratchet, crag, crest, arete, cone peak, sugar loaf, pike, aiguille, spire, pyramid, steeple, beard, chevaux de frise, porcupine, hedgehog, brier, bramble, thistle, comb, awn, beggar's lice, bur, burr, catchweed, cleavers, clivers, goose, grass, hairif, hariff, flax comb, hackle, hatchel, heckle, wedge, knife edge, cutting edge, blade, edge tool, cutlery, knife, penknife, whittle, razor, razor blade, safety razor, straight razor, electric razor, scalpel, bistoury, lancet, plowshare, coulter, colter, hatchet, ax, pickax, mattock, pick, adze, gill, billhook, cleaver, cutter, scythe, sickle, scissors, shears, pruning shears, cutters, wire cutters, nail clipper, paper cutter, sword, bodkin, belduque, bowie knife, paring knife, bushwhacker, drawing knife, drawing shave, microtome, chisel, screwdriver blade, flint blade, guillotine, sharpener, hone, strop, grindstone, whetstone, novaculite, steel, emery, sharp, keen, acute, acicular, aciform, aculeated, acuminated, pointed, tapering, conical, pyramidal, mucronate, mucronated, spindle shaped, needle shaped, spiked, spiky, ensiform, peaked, salient, cusped, cuspidate, cuspidated, cornute, cornuted, cornicultate, prickly, spiny, spinous, spicular, thorny, bristling, muricated, pectinated, studded, thistly, briary, craggy, snaggy, digitated, two-edged, fusiform, dentiform, denticulated, toothed, odontoid, starlike, stellated, stelliform, sagittate, sagittiform, arrowheaded, arrowy, barbed, spurred, acinaciform, apiculate, apiculated, aristate, awned, awny, bearded, calamiform, cone-shaped, coniform, crestate, echinate, gladiate, lanceolate, lanciform, awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl- shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped, setarious, spinuliferous, subulate, tetrahedral, xiphoid, cutting, sharp edged, knife edged, sharp as a razor, keen as a razor, sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack, sharpened, set.