COMB • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Comb

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/koʊm/ Listen

noun

Comb n.

1.

An instrument with teeth, for straightening, cleansing, and adjusting the hair, or for keeping it in place.

2.

An instrument for currying hairy animals, or cleansing and smoothing their coats; a currycomb.

3.

(Manuf. & Mech.)

(a)

A toothed instrument used for separating and cleansing wool, flax, hair, etc.

(b)

The serrated vibratory doffing knife of a carding machine.

(c)

A former, commonly cone-shaped, used in hat manufacturing for hardening the soft fiber into a bat.

(d)

A tool with teeth, used for chasing screws on work in a lathe; a chaser.

(e)

The notched scale of a wire micrometer.

(f)

The collector of an electrical machine, usually resembling a comb.

4.

(Zool.)

(a)

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.

(b)

One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen of scorpions.

5.

The curling crest of a wave.

6.

The waxen framework forming the walls of the cells in which bees store their honey, eggs, etc.; honeycomb. "A comb of honey." "When the bee doth leave her comb."

7.

The thumbpiece of the hammer of a gunlock, by which it may be cocked.

Combe, Comb n. (Written also coombe) That unwatered portion of a valley which forms its continuation beyond and above the most elevated spring that issues into it. "A gradual rise the shelving combe Displayed."

Comb n. A dry measure. See Coomb.

Coomb n. (Written also comb) A dry measure of four bushels, or half a quarter.

verb

Comb v. t. (past & past part. combed; pres. part. combing) 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. "Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright."

Comb v. i. (Naut.) To roll over, as the top or crest of a wave; to break with a white foam, as waves.

See images of 'Comb'

Etymology of 'Comb'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Comb" Quotes from Famous Books

... waters are most narrowly constricted, they heap themselves up into a longitudinal ridge or bore, a comb perhaps four feet higher than the general level. To ride this crest and to avoid the destroying fangs that lie in wait on either side is a feat that calls for nerve and skill and endurance on the part of boatmen. The whole four miles is a place of many voices, a thundering place that numbs ...

— The Winds of Chance • Rex Beach

... dear, was it yesterday (Call yet once) that she went away? Once she sate with you and me, On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea, And the youngest sate on her knee. She comb'd its bright hair, and she tended it well, When down swung the sound of a far-off bell. She sigh'd, she look'd up through the clear green sea; She said: "I must go, for my kinsfolk pray In the little gray church ...

— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester

... but took out a comb, and began to arrange little Louison's hair. "Now," she whispered, "I'll make you as smart as the young lady we saw with Madame de Laccassagne;" and in this way she amused herself and the child, talking nonsense with her, and inventing imaginary scenes and people, all in ...

— Jacques Bonneval • Anne Manning

... It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. When I come in at night after an all-day tramp I am charged like a Leyden jar; my hair crackles and snaps beneath the comb like a cat's back, and a strange, new glow diffuses itself ...

— Winter Sunshine • John Burroughs

... on agricultural chemistry, tells of an experiment by friction on the skin of pigs, whose skins are like that of the human race. He treated six of these animals with a curry-comb seven weeks, and left three other pigs untouched. The result was a gain of thirty-three pounds more of weight, with the use of five bushels less of food for those curried, than for the neglected ones. This result ...

— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

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