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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

comb.

A toothed implement:

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kəʊm/Received-Pronunciation/koʊm/US/kəʉm/Australia/kɐʉm/New-Zealand
  1. A toothed implement: A toothed implement for grooming the hair or (formerly) for keeping it in place.

  2. A toothed implement: A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.

  3. 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.

  4. A toothed implement: A toothed tool used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.

  5. A toothed implement: The notched scale of a wire micrometer.

  6. A toothed implement: The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.

  7. A toothed implement: A toothed plate used for creating wells in agar gels for electrophoresis.

  8. 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.

  9. A toothed implement: One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen in scorpions, with which they comb substrate.

  10. A toothed implement: A ctene.

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

  12. A crest: A crest (of metal, leather, etc) on a piece of armor, especially on a helmet.

    broadly
  13. A crest: The top part of a gun’s stock.

  14. A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.

  15. The main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.

  16. A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening soft fibre.

  17. An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.

  18. The curling crest of a wave; a comber.

  19. 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.

  20. A kind of vertical plate in a lode.

    Cornwall · obsolete
Where this word comes from

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)).

verb/kəʊm/Received-Pronunciation/koʊm/US/kəʉm/Australia/kɐʉm/New-Zealand
  1. Especially of hair or fur, to groom with a toothed implement, especially a comb.

    transitive
  2. To separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.

    transitive
  3. To search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.

    transitive
    Police combed the field for evidence after the assault.
  4. To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.

    intransitive
  5. To turn a vessel parallel to (the track of) (a torpedo) so as to reduce one's size as a target.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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)).

noun/kɒmb/UK
  1. Abbreviation of combination.

    abbreviation · alt-of · rare
Where this word comes from

From combination.

noun/kuːm/
  1. Alternative form of combe.

    alt-of · alternative
noun/kuːm/
  1. Alternative form of coomb.

    alt-of · alternative · dialectal
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.