comb
noun
a toothed strip of plastic, hard rubber, bone, wood, or metal, used for arranging the hair, untangling it, or holding it in place.
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comb
1 American
[kohm]
/ koʊm /
noun
-
combs
plural
-
a toothed strip of plastic, hard rubber, bone, wood, or metal, used for arranging the hair, untangling it, or holding it in place.
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a currycomb.
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any comblike instrument, object, or formation.
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the fleshy, more or less serrated outgrowth on the head of certain gallinaceous birds, especially the domestic fowl.
-
something resembling or suggesting this, as the crest of a wave.
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a honeycomb, or any similar group of cells.
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a machine for separating choice cotton or wool fibers from noil.
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a comblike instrument for imparting a grainlike finish to a painted surface.
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Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. a ridge of a roof.
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a series of springlike prongs projecting from a spine, usually of plastic, for making a loose-leaf binding.
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a trowel having a notched edge for applying adhesives in setting tiles or the like.
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Armor. a ridge along the top of a helmet, especially of the morion.
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Masonry. drag.
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the upper edge of the buttstock of a rifle or shotgun.
verb (used with object)
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combs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
combed,
past participle, past
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combing
present participle
-
to arrange or adorn (the hair) with a comb.
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to use (something) in the manner of a comb.
She was slowly combing her fingers through her hair.
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to remove (anything undesirable) with or as if with a comb.
She combed the snarls out of her hair. They combed the cowards from the group.
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to search everywhere in.
He combed the files for the missing letter.
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to separate (textile fibers) with a comb.
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to scrape with or as with a comb.
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to sweep across; rake.
High winds combed the seacoast.
verb (used without object)
-
combs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
combed,
past participle, past
-
combing
present participle
comb.
2
American
abbreviation
-
combination.
-
combined.
-
combining.
-
combustion.
comb
British
/ kəʊm /
noun
-
a toothed device of metal, plastic, wood, etc, used for disentangling or arranging hair
-
a tool or machine that separates, cleans, and straightens wool, cotton, etc
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the fixed cutter on a sheep-shearing machine
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anything resembling a toothed comb in form or function
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the fleshy deeply serrated outgrowth on the top of the heads of certain birds, esp the domestic fowl
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anything resembling the comb of a bird
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a currycomb
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a honeycomb
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the row of fused cilia in a ctenophore
-
to examine very thoroughly
verb
-
(tr) to use a comb on
-
to search or inspect with great care
the police combed the woods
comb
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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combsimple
-
combssimple
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have combedperfect
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has combedperfect
-
am combingprogressive
-
are combingprogressive
-
is combingprogressive
-
have been combingperfect progressive
-
has been combingperfect progressive
Past
-
combedsimple
-
had combedperfect
-
was combingprogressive
-
were combingprogressive
-
had been combingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of comb
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English comb, camb; cognate with Old High German kamb ( German Kamm ), Old Norse kambr, Greek gómphos “pin, peg,” gomphíos “molar tooth,” Slavic (Polish) ząb “tooth,” Tocharian A kam “tooth”; see cam 1, kempt
Explanation
A comb is a tool for smoothing your hair. You might pull a comb through your curls before you run out the door in the morning to catch your bus. A comb is made of plastic or wood, with separate teeth that untangle strands of hair. When you use one, you comb: "I grabbed the comb so I could comb my cat before the photo shoot." Another way to comb is to rummage or search, the way you comb through your bag to find your car keys. The Old English root is camb, "crest" or "honeycomb," from a Germanic root that means "toothed object."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But there’s affection in Jean’s moralizing, as he brings out his own comb to run it through Berenger’s unruly hair—where it gets stuck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
People used speedboats and more jet skis to comb the waters surrounding Koh Samui and towards the nearby island of Koh Phangan searching for the family, the Bangkok Post reports.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Staffed by a combination of HSI experts and outside consultants, it developed software tools to comb the data for information that could help agents pursue criminal suspects.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
In addition to state parks personnel, several agencies have collaborated to comb through the park for Brophy including the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team; the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
“I was...impulsive,” Richard said, looking at the comb Ophie held in her hand.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
“It’s two bald blokes fighting over a comb. Whoever wins will have their arse handed to them by Bayern on Sunday night.”
From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2020
“We are going through these with a fine-tooth comb. There is a very specific checklist.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2019
“No. Look I can prove it. That quarter on the hood, next to my comb. It’s from 1982. I left it in my pocket by mistake.”
From Nature ● Oct. 22, 2019
My daughter-in-law says, “Don’t do the comb. I don’t want him doing that in school — he’s 11.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2016
“Then let’s get back to the vans. We still have more streets to comb. This neighbourhood is about dry anyway.”
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
He now combs the hallways for bright aluminum cans to seize and pour down the drain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
All of us — probably the Newsoms included — will just have to wait to see if the fine-tooth combs of the feds pick up any dirt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026
However, such combs are notoriously difficult to measure with high precision, since their oscillations are too rapid for conventional electronics and cannot be directly captured with standard optical methods.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 13, 2025
Polygenic scoring combs through a person's DNA and calculates how likely they may be to develop a disease.
From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025
She combs his hair and kisses his eyes and forehead, the small of his back, and the tips of each finger.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
In the past, scammers would have manually combed through social-media profiles and other online data to piece together details about potential targets and obtain contact information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, agents from the New York FBI office combed through a trove of documents received from the Met Police, following the search of Bayoumi's properties in Birmingham, the BBC has learned.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
An AFP journalist at the scene saw numerous emergency vehicles lining a nearby road and a large tent erected as police combed the area.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
The May PCE report isn’t likely to be taken for granted by the market; it will be combed carefully and methodically for signs to either add to or dial back rate-hike bets.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026
He combed in the vicinity, and that’s when he heard a voice calling out.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Or, more likely, amid the backwaters of eBay: The directors reportedly ordered a massive amount of textual material online, combing through it to find anything relevant to their project.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Rescuers were still combing the stricken area for victims, search and rescue official Fathur Rahman told AFP on Monday morning.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
But after combing through the info we do have, Slate’s Heather Schwedel renders this brutally honest verdict.
From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026
Many Venezuelans were combing through wreckage in search of loved ones, while others turned to social media in an effort to find relatives and friends who had vanished in the disaster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
She had been thinking for months now about what to name this child, mentally combing through all the people she’d known, the books she’d read in high school.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
