Comb
WordNet
noun
(1) The act of drawing a comb through hair
"His hair needed a comb"
(2) The fleshy red crest on the head of the domestic fowl and other gallinaceous birds
(3) Ciliated comb-like swimming plate of a ctenophore
(4) A flat device with narrow pointed teeth on one edge; disentangles or arranges hair
(5) Any of several tools for straightening fibers
(6) A fleshy and deeply serrated outgrowth atop the heads of certain birds especially domestic fowl
verb
(7) Smoothen and neaten with or as with a comb
"Comb your hair before dinner"
"Comb the wool"
(8) Search thoroughly
"They combed the area for the missing child"
(9) Straighten with a comb
"Comb your hair"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
, from , from . Cognate with Dutch , German , Swedish ; compare Ancient Greek .
Noun
- A toothed implement for grooming the hair.
- A machine used in separating choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
- A fleshy growth on the top of the head of some birds and reptiles; crest.
- A structure of hexagon cells made by bees for storing honey; honeycomb.
- An old English measure of corn equal to the half quarter.
-
- 1882, But the comb or half quarter is very general in the Eastern counties, particularly in Norfolk. — James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, page 207.
-
- The top part of a gun’s stock.
- the toothed plate at the top and bottom of an escalator that prevents objects getting trapped between the moving stairs and fixed landings.
- the main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.
Verb
- To groom the hair with a toothed implement.
- To separate choice cotton fibers from worsted cloth fibers.
- To search thoroughly as if raking over an area with a comb.